Groove Me

"Groove Me" is a song recorded by R&B singer King Floyd. Released from his eponymous album in late 1970, it was a crossover hit, spending four non-consecutive weeks at number-one on Billboard Soul chart and peaking at #6 on the Billboard Hot 100.^[2]

The song was recorded and produced by Wardell Quezergue at Malaco Records' Jackson, Mississippi recording studios during the same session as another Quezergue-produced song, Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff".^[3] "Groove Me" was originally released as the B-side to Floyd's "What Our Love Needs" on the Malaco subsidiary Chimneyville. When New Orleans disc jockey George Vinnett started playing the B-side, the song began meriting attention, and as the record emerged as a local smash, Atlantic Records scooped up national distribution rights.^[3]

Credits

No credits are listed for the Malaco studio musicians on the record. According to Rob Bowman's liner notes from the 1999 box set, The Last Soul Company: Malaco, A Thirty Year Retrospective, the musicians for this session included:

• Vernie Robbins – bass
• James Stroud – drums
• Wardell Quezergue – organ
• Jerry Puckett – guitar

During this time at Malaco, horn lines were typically played by saxophonist Hugh Garraway and trumpeter Perry Lomax.^[4]

Origin

According to Rob Bowman, Canadian professor of ethnomusicology, "Groove Me" had been inspired by a young college student who had worked about twenty feet away from Floyd at an east L.A. box factory. In Floyd's words: "She'd just watch me and smile at me all day. When I went to the water fountain, she would make it her purpose to come up to the water fountain. But, I was so shy. So, I decided one day that I was gonna write this poem and give it to her and I wrote 'Groove Me.' Believe it or not, after I finished it she never came back to work. It blew me away. So, I never gave her the poem. Man, I'd sure like to meet her one day just to thank her!"^[4]

Cover versions

• A cover version by The Blues Brothers appears on their 1978 album Briefcase Full of Blues and on one of their many compilation albums, The Blues Brothers Complete.
• In 1979, Fern Kinney, who sang backing vocals on King Floyd's original version, released a disco version of the song on her album Groove Me, which reached #6 on the Billboard dance chart.
• Renowned singer Etta James recorded an R&B version for her 2011 album The Dreamer.
• Angie Stone recorded a version of the song for the Austin Powers in Goldmember soundtrack, which was released in 2002.

Use in film and television

• The song is played in The Simpsons episode "Bart Carny", and the films Austin Powers in Goldmember, Swingers, and We Are Marshall. The song is also used in a 1990s Got Milk? commercial.
• The first line of the song "Aww, sookie sookie now" is a catchphrase used by Regine Hunter in the 1990s sitcom Living Single. It is also looped as a sample throughout the song "Six Secs" by the digital hardcore band Cobra Killer on their self-titled album from 1998.
• The phrase "Aww, sookie sookie" is used by Christina Applegate and Cameron Diaz in the 2002 movie "The Sweetest Thing".

References