The Knight Brothers were a soul music

Soul music

Soul music is a music genre originating in the United States combining elements of gospel music and rhythm and blues. According to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, soul is "music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm & blues into a form of...

 duo, comprising Richard Dunbar (b 31 May 1939) and Jimmy Diggs (b James Leon Diggs, 11 October 1938).

Both had been singing in local church choirs, when they met while living in Washington D.C. in the early 1950s. The pair then formed a doo-wop

Doo-wop

The name Doo-wop is given to a style of vocal-based rhythm and blues music that developed in African American communities in the 1940s and achieved mainstream popularity in the 1950s and early 1960s. It emerged from New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Newark, Pittsburgh, Cincinnati and...

 group, the Starfires, who recorded for the Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

 label in 1958.

Forming a duo, they began recording for the Checker

Checker Records

Checker Records is an inactive record label that was started in 1952 as a subsidiary to Chess Records in Chicago, Illinois. The label was founded by the Chess brothers, Leonard and Phil, who ran the label until they sold it to General Recorded Tape in 1969, shortly before Leonard's death.The label...

 label in 1963. Their biggest success was Temptation 'Bout To Get Me, which was a number 12 R & B and number 70 pop hit in 1965, and was followed by I'm Never Gonna Live It Down.

Subsequent records on Checker and Mercury

Mercury Records

Mercury Records is a record label operating as a standalone company in the UK and as part of the Island Def Jam Motown Music Group in the US; both are subsidiaries of Universal Music Group. There is also a Mercury Records in Australia, which is a local artist and repertoire division of Universal...

 were less successful, and the duo split up in 1968. Richard Dunbar went on to sing with a revived version of the Orioles

The Orioles

The Orioles were a successful and influential American R&B group of the late 1940s and early 1950s, one of the earliest such vocal bands who established the basic pattern for the doo-wop sound....

during the 1970s and 80s, whilst Jimmy ended his recording career.