Terry Knight - Early Career

Early Career

Knight was born on April 9, 1943 in Lapeer, Michigan. Knight's career began as a Detroit DJ in 1963 when he replaced Dave Shafer as "Jack the Bellboy" on WJBK, coming to Detroit from Flint, Michigan's legendary Top 40 rocker WTAC. The following year, he moved across the river to CKLW in Windsor, Ontario. Arguably the first American DJ to air the Rolling Stones, he hosted a legendary late night show from high-powered CKLW, bringing the British Invasion to the Northern states. He was awarded the honorary title of "The Sixth Stone" for his early support of the Stones. By the end of 1964, however, Knight had left CKLW and the radio business, intending to pursue his own career in music.

Around 1965, Knight fashioned his own songwriting and performing career in Flint, Michigan, by becoming the front man for Terry Knight and the Pack. With this band, Knight recorded a handful of regional hits for local Lucky Eleven Records, part of the Cameo-Parkway Records group, including his self-penned generation gap anthem "A Change On The Way," as well as scoring two national hits, a tasteful cover of the Yardbirds' "(Mister, You're A) Better Man Than I" and his ultra-lounge reading of Ben E. King's "I (Who Have Nothing)" (which came close to making the national top 40, peaking at #46). The band also left behind two long-playing garage classics before breaking up in 1967. (Brownsville Station honored Knight and the Pack with a cover of the Knight-penned "Love, Love, Love, Love, Love" on their '73 album Yeah!)