Jean Knight, Do Me | Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶

In the 96^th edition of Throwback Vibez (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Do Me” by the late, great, Grammy-nominated soul singer, Jean Knight.  

The vibes, the vibes, those Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶! Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 is a column that celebrates awesome songs from the past.  The records that grace this column are older, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re ancient – no fossils 🦴! All genres of music are welcome. In the 96^th edition of Throwback Vibez 🕶️🎶 (2025), we recollect and reflect on “Do Me” performed by Jean Knight.

“Do me baby, like you wanna / Do me baby, if you gonna.” Ooh-wee, Jean Knight (1943 – 2023)! The late, Grammy-nominated, New Orleans soul singer, best known for “Mr. Big Stuff”, continues, “Love me boy, any way you can / Do me, like a nasty man.” Is there any secret about what Knight is getting at with “Do Me”? Of course there’s not, at least judging by the latter lyric! “Do Me” is the 11^th track from her 1971 album, Mr. Big Stuff.  “Mr. Big Stuff” is the crowning achievement from that project and her career (it peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, her sole top 40 hit), but “Do Me” is no slouch.  Wardell Quezergue (1930 – 2011) and Albert Savoy wrote “Do Me.” Quezergue also produced it.

“Do Me” is funky to the nth degree from the get-go.  The groove cooks, setting up Jean Knight for success. Like many soul records from the ‘60s and ‘70s, besides a marvelous rhythm section, there are articulated, bright horns (they appear sparingly). The lyrics keep it sexy and simple. Vocally, Knight ‘brings the heat’ and plenty of attitude and personality. In the pre-chorus, she asserts, “Oh, what you got, boy, let me show you what it’s gonna bring.” Somewhat non-traditional in form, Knight delivers a few verses after unveiling the chorus and pre-chorus. At the end of the first verse, she memorably sings, “If you like what you doin’, boy, you got to pay the cost.” In the final verse, she still emphasizes the ‘do,’ singing, “What you got now is hard to find / And I’m so glad that I can say you’re mine.” Beyond her playful, soulful pipes, Knight gets the assist of background vocals, who amplify the D-O. “Do Me” was released as a single but sadly gained no traction. Knight, of course, is characterized as a one-hit wonder. How did this happen? I’m unsure why this record wasn’t a smash, but it slaps hard more than 50 years after its release.