Sonny Knight Radio

b. Joseph C. Smith, 1934, Maywood, Illinois, USA. Sonny Knight succeeded with one beautiful R&B ballad, ‘Confidential’, in the Billboard charts in 1956 before fading from the scene. Smith’s family moved to Los Angeles in the early 50s, where he not only sang but wrote a novel. Encouraged to seek a recording contract by a girlfriend, Smith looked in the telephone book and called the first label listed, Aladdin Records. He changed his professional name to Sonny Knight and recorded unsuccessfully for Aladdin, then switching to Specialty Records. Specialty producer Robert ‘Bumps’ Blackwell partnered him with songwriter Dorina Morgan (wife of producer Hite Morgan), who penned ‘Confidential’ for Knight. The single reached number 17 in the USA, but Knight was unable to follow it up. He had two less successful singles in the mid-60s before retiring from singing.