Frankie Knuckles

In 1997, Knuckles won the Grammy Award for Remixer of the Year, Non-Classical. Knuckles was often called "the godfather of house music".

• Name — Frankie Knuckles • Birth Name — Francis Warren Nicholls Jr. • Born — 18 January 1955 • Birthplace — New York City, U.S. • Died — 31 March 2014 • Place of death — Chicago, Illinois, U.S. • Instrument — * Turntable • sampler • Genre — * House • soul • disco • R&B • Chicago house • Occupation — * DJ • record producer • remixer • Years Active — 1975–2014 • Label — Virgin

Born in New York City, in the Bronx, Knuckles and his friend Larry Levan began frequenting discos as teenagers. While studying textile design at the FIT, Knuckles and Levan began working as DJs, playing soul, disco, and R&B at two of the most important early discos, The Continental Baths and The Gallery. Their DJing led them to the Loft and the Gallery, with Levan becoming the main DJ at the Continental Baths. Knuckles, initially hesitant about the Baths, eventually began playing there until its closure in 1976. The Continental Baths, located below the Ansonia Hotel, was an opulent gay bathhouse known for its steam rooms, swimming pool, disco, and more. Levan left in 1974, later establishing the prototype for the Paradise Garage. After Levan's departure, Knuckles became the Baths' resident DJ until its closure. In the late 1970s, Knuckles moved from New York City to Chicago, where his old friend, Robert Williams, was opening what became the nightclub called Warehouse. When the club opened in Chicago in 1977, he was invited to play on a regular basis. Knuckles accepted the offer and moved to Chicago in 1977, becoming the resident DJ at the Warehouse, situated in Chicago's west side industrial zone. Knuckles's DJ sets at the Warehouse drew in crowds of up to 2,000 people, primarily from the black and gay demographic. In the late 1970s, as disco faced challenges, Knuckles sought ways to keep the genre alive in Chicago. He began experimenting with re-edits of songs, extending intros and breaks, and adding new beats to rejuvenate old favorites. These DJ alchemy experiments at the Warehouse laid the foundation for the emergence of house music. While the Warehouse initially faced skepticism from the wider Chicago club scene, it eventually gained recognition as adventurous straight audiences began attending. Wayne Williams, a young DJ from the south side, was among those influenced by Knuckles's music. Williams, inspired by the unique sound, introduced it to his audiences, becoming one of Chicago's most successful DJs and spreading the "house" sound beyond the gay clubs. House music's name itself originated from the Warehouse, reflecting the exclusive, underground vibe of the club. Initially, "house" referred to an attitude and a feeling associated with cool, underground music. As Knuckles continued to reshape disco tracks and experiment with remixing, the term "house" evolved into a genre of its own. Knuckles continued DJing at the Warehouse until November 1982, when he started his own Chicago club, The Power Plant. Around 1983, to enhance his mixes, Knuckles bought his first drum machine from Derrick May, a young DJ who regularly made the trip from Detroit to see Knuckles at the Warehouse and Ron Hardy at the Music Box, both in Chicago. The combination of bare, insistent drum machine pulses and an overlay of cult disco classics defined the sound of early Chicago house music, a sound which many local producers began to mimic in the studios by 1985. When his next club the Powerhouse closed in 1987, Knuckles moved to the UK for four months and DJ-ed at DELIRIUM!, a Thursday night party at Heaven, a gay nightclub in London. Chicago house artists were in high demand and having major success in the UK with this new genre of music. Knuckles also had a stint in New York, where he continued to immerse himself in producing, remixing, and recording. 1988 saw the release of Pet Shop Boys' third album, Introspective, which featured Knuckles as a co-producer of the song "I Want a Dog".

In 1982, Knuckles was introduced to then-unknown Jamie Principle by mutual friend Jose "Louie" Gomez, who had recorded the original vocal-dub of "Your Love" to reel-to-reel tape. Louie Gomez met up with Frankie at the local record pool (I.R.S.) and gave him a tape copy of the track. Knuckles played Gomez's unreleased dub mix for an entire year in his sets during which it became a crowd favorite. Knuckles later went into the studio to re-record the track with Principle, and in 1987 helped put Your Love and Baby Wants to Ride out on vinyl after these tunes had been regulars on his reel-to-reel player at the Warehouse for a year. As house music was developing in Chicago, producer Chip E. took Knuckles under his tutelage and produced Knuckles's first recording, "You Can't Hide from Yourself". Then came more production work, including Jamie Principle's "Baby Wants to Ride", and later "Tears" with Robert Owens (of Fingers Inc.) and (Knuckles's protégé and future Def Mix associate) Satoshi Tomiie.

• Illustration — Knuckles (left) and Chris McAvoy (right) at the DJ Hut, Washington, DC (January 13, 2006) Knuckles made numerous popular Def Classic Mixes with John Poppo as sound engineer, and Knuckles partnered with David Morales on Def Mix Productions. His debut album Beyond the Mix (1991), released on Virgin Records, contained what would be considered his seminal work, "The Whistle Song", which was the first of four number ones on the US dance chart. The Def Classic mix of Lisa Stansfield's "Change", released in the same year, also featured the whistle-like motif. Another track from the album, "Rain Falls", featured vocals from Lisa Michaelis. Eight thousand copies of the album had sold by 2004. Other key remixes from this time include his rework of the Electribe 101 anthem "Talking with Myself" and Alison Limerick's "Where Love Lives". When Junior Vasquez took a sabbatical from The Sound Factory in Manhattan, Knuckles took over and launched a successful run as resident DJ. He continued to work as a remixer through the 1990s and into the next decade, reworking tracks from Michael Jackson, Luther Vandross, Diana Ross, Eternal and Toni Braxton. He released several new singles, including "Keep on Movin'" and a re-issue of an earlier hit "Bac N Da Day" with Definity Records. In 1995, he released his second album titled Welcome to the Real World. By 2004, 13,000 copies had sold. In 2004, Knuckles released a 13-track album of original material – his first in over a decade – titled A New Reality.

In the mid-2000s, Knuckles developed Type II diabetes. He developed osteomyelitis after breaking his foot snowboarding, and had it amputated after declining to take time off for treatment. On March 31, 2014, he died in Chicago at the age of 59 due to the complications from his diabetes.

• Year — Position — Notes — Ref. Reference • 1997 — 49 — New Entry • 1998 — 54 — Down 5 • 1999 — 23 — Up 31 • 2000 — 69 — Down 46 • 2001 — 95 — Down 26 • 2002 — 78 — Up 17 • 2003 — 90 — Down 12