"The sound of Soulsville, U.S.A.," said then President Barack Obama at the White House in 2013, "is a music that, at its core, is about the pain of being alone, the power of human connection, and the importance of treating each other right."

"Well, that's a part of it," acknowledges Stax star Eddie Floyd, one of the performers gracing the White House stage for a soul show that year, "but I prefer what he says next."

"These songs," continued Obama, "get us on the dance floor. They get stuck in our heads. We go back over them again and again. And they've played an important part in our history."

The name of Eddie Floyd may not jump to the tip of your tongue, but if you care enough about American popular music to be reading this, you know his songs. As a core member of the Stax family in the '60s and '70s, Floyd co-wrote "634-5789" (a hit for Wilson Pickett), "Raise Your Hand" (a perennial show-closer for Bruce Springsteen), and of course the song that inspired his new autobiography's title (buy now).

"Knock on Wood" was a Top 40 hit and an R&B chart-topper in Floyd's original 1966 version, and has since been covered by artists including David Bowie (it's the only song Bowie himself didn't write on his 1974 album David Live) and disco singer Amii Stewart (her version topped the U.S. pop chart in 1979) — but pride of place on Floyd's own list of artists who've sung his songs goes to Ella Fitzgerald.

"That was the pinnacle of making it," Floyd writes in his book. "Ella Fitzgerald! The First Lady of Song herself. The woman I had so admired as a child, when my mother took me to those concerts in Detroit. Back then, however much I knew I wanted to write songs, I could never have imagined Ella would one day be singing one of mine."

Floyd was born in 1937 in Montgomery, Alabama — where he lives again today, mostly but not entirely retired at age 83. With his dad largely out of the picture, Floyd's early life involved a lot of back-and-forth between Montgomery and Detroit, where his uncle Robert West took him in as a teenager after Floyd spent time in a reformatory and decided it was time to shoot straight and devote himself to music.

As Floyd well knew, Detroit was not a bad place to be if it was the 1950s and you were a Black boy who loved music. From the beginning, though, his collaborators were diverse: in 1955 he founded the Falcons, now regarded as one of the first significant integrated vocal groups. They had a Top 20 hit in 1959 with "You're So Fine," on which lead vocals were handled by Joe Stubbs — younger brother of Levi, from the Four Tops. Pickett also joined the group for a while, but begrudgingly; he had his sights set on the solo stardom he'd shortly achieve.

Floyd's turn in the spotlight would come after he made his way to Memphis via Washington, D.C. The Stax studios were used for a variety of sessions, and it quickly became clear that the quiet singer with an ear for a strong melody could contribute a great deal to the label that first adopted the "Soulsville, U.S.A." moniker — a pointed rejoinder to Motown's "Hitsville, U.S.A." — when it was added to Pickett's "634-5789" single as a subtitle.

The singer's signature hit, he explains, was a quintessential example of the Stax process. He wrote "Knock on Wood" at the Lorraine Motel (the later site of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s tragic assassination was like a Stax clubhouse) with Steve Cropper, inspired by Floyd's idea that a song about superstition would be appealing and by the stormy Memphis weather ("it's like thunder, lighting"). They brought the melody and guitar hook (inverted from the one he'd written for Pickett's "In the Midnight Hour") to Stax, where they thought they were cutting a demo for Otis Redding.

Donald "Duck" Dunn wrote a catchy bass line, drummer Al Jackson Jr. came up with the "knock-knock-knock" drum fill, and Isaac Hayes dropped into the keyboard seat to write a horn part that would evoke the feeling of the tracks Redding was then cutting. Floyd sang lead, and when Redding failed to move on the song, the musicians convinced Stax to put the existing version out as a single. Redding would later record it, proving that even the legendary Otis Redding couldn't improve on every song he covered.

Floyd has continued to record and perform throughout the decades, as well as working behind the scenes; the biggest "always learning" moment in Knock! Knock! Knock! on Wood might be that Floyd played a role in the early career of Lynyrd Skynyrd. He formed a management company in 1970 with the younger brother of Otis Redding's manager; in a photo reprinted in the book, Floyd sits with his partner and "a young band of seriously long-haired dudes" they'd just signed. Floyd was in the studio with Skynyrd at Muscle Shoals when they recorded their first demos, including "Free Bird." It took record companies a while to see the band's potential, though, and by the time Skynyrd got a record deal, Floyd had moved on.

As music memoirs go, Floyd's is really about the music. He mentions his seven kids almost offhandedly; ditto for his multiple marriages. He says he doesn't want to get into the question of changing race relations. When King died, writes Floyd, "the mood changed at Stax, but it changed at the grocery store right next door too. Everything changed, period."

Over the years, Floyd's been properly celebrated as a foundational soul artist. He was onstage for the iconic Wattstax concert in 1972, he joined Springsteen on stage in the mid-1970s, and he eventually joined the Blues Brothers band. Floyd wasn't part of that band's original era, with John Belushi; he joined in the late '80s, when the band was regrouping to tour with guest singers.

That brings us to a critically reviled and near-forgotten film, and if you haven't seen it yet, Floyd gives you a reason to check out at least a highlight reel from Blues Brothers 2000: it brought Floyd together on screen, and ultimately onstage for the first time in decades, with Wilson Pickett. The film's producers thought it would make for a perfect supergroup moment to unite the writer of "634-5789" with the man who made it a hit...and threw in Minnesota's own Jonny Lang for good measure.

Floyd and Pickett have had a love-hate relationship built on mutual respect and good-natured competition, but Pickett was famously explosive: once on tour, Floyd was astonished to see Pickett's posse literally hold their road manager off a balcony by his ankles until he agreed to resign. "You always hear about this stuff in the music business," writes Floyd, "but you never think you're going to see it!"

On the Blues Brothers 2000 set, though, Pickett (now "sobered up a little") behaved himself — and pushed the author to new heights on a joint Letterman appearance where Pickett showed up right before showtime ("and he's the one who lives in New York!") and took the song's third verse to "ad-lib city." As soon as the song was over, Pickett turned and walked off stage before Letterman could even shake his hand on camera. "The cat was still crazy," muses Floyd.

It was just another memorable moment in a career that's been full of them, and we can thank Floyd and his co-author Tony Fletcher for documenting that career in this engaging new book.

Oh, and that White House appearance in 2013? It wasn't the first time Floyd had played for a sitting president. Although he had some reservations as a lifelong Democrat, he writes, he agreed in the spirit of comity and showmanship to play George H.W. Bush's inauguration in 1989. (This was the somewhat infamous showcase with blues fan, and Bush campaign manager, Lee Atwater on guitar.) During "Knock on Wood" Floyd was inspired to bring a dance partner onstage, so he walked down to the front row.

He knew the 41st president and his wife were out of the question, and First Son George W. Bush "pushed my hand back" when it was offered, "so I guess it wasn't going to be his wife either," Floyd writes. He ended up dancing with tennis champion Steffi Graf, who'd just swept the four major championships. Score another win for Eddie Floyd.

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Tune in to The Current at 8:30 a.m. (Central) every Wednesday morning to hear Jay Gabler and Jill Riley talk about a new book. (Note that as of Sept. 3, the Rock and Roll Book Club will move from Wednesday to Thursday mornings.) Also, find Jay's reviews online.

August 19: And In the End: The Last Days of the Beatles by Ken McNab

August 26: Fangirls: Scenes from Modern Music Culture by Hannah Ewens (buy now)

September 3: If You See Me: My Six-Decade Journey in Rock and Roll by Pepé Willie (buy now)

September 10: Utopia Avenue by David Mitchell (buy now)

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