Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May
5, 1937 – May 31, 2000) was an American
vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from Gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.
Musical career
Early years
Johnnie
Taylor was born in Crawfordsville
, Arkansas
.
As an
adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago
's Chance
Records label in the 1950s, as part of
the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam
Cooke. His singing was strikingly close to that of
Sam Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place
in Cooke's gospel group, the
Soul
Stirrers, in 1957.
A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent
SAR Records, Taylor signed on and
recorded "Rome
Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962. However, SAR Records quickly became
defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.
In 1966,
Taylor moved to Stax Records in
Memphis
, Tennessee
, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of
Soul". Whilst there he recorded with the label's
house band,
Booker T. & the MGs. His
hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love
Somebody's Baby" (both
written by the
team of
Isaac Hayes and
David Porter) and most notably
"
Who's Making Love", which reached
No. 5 on the
Billboard Hot 100
chart and No. 1 on the
R&B chart in 1968.
Taylor
once toured in California
with blues singer Blues
Boy Willie of Memphis,
Texas
.
During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B
star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as
"
Jody's Got Your Girl and
Gone", which reached No. 23 on the Hot 100 chart, "Cheaper to
Keep Her" (
Mack Rice) and
record producer Don
Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)", which
reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart. Taylor, along with
Isaac Hayes and
The Staple Singers was one of the label's
flagship
artists.
Columbia Records
After Stax folded in the mid 1970s, Taylor switched to
Columbia Records, where he made his best
known hit, "
Disco Lady", in 1976. "Disco
Lady" was the first certified
platinum single (two
million copies sold) by the
RIAA.
Malaco Records
After a brief stint at Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with
Malaco Records after the label's
founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him
sing at
blues singer,
Z. Z. Hill's funeral in the spring of 1984.
Backed by members of
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm
Section as well as in-house veterans like former
Stax keyboardist
Carson
Whitsett and guitarist/bandleader
Bernard Jenkins, Malaco gave Taylor the type
of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and
early 1970s, enabling him to record ten albums for the Malaco label
in his sixteen year stint.
In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco,
Good Love!,
made it to Number One on
Billboard's Blues chart (#15 R&B),
and was the biggest record in Malaco's history.
With this success,
Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas
, Texas
in the
summer of 1997. The club portion of the "Good Love" video
was recorded at 1001 Nightclub in Jackson, Mississippi.
Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being
at a
concert featuring deceased
soul music icons
Otis
Redding,
Jackie Wilson,
Marvin Gaye,
Sam Cooke,
and MGs drummer
Al Jackson, among others.
In one verse, Taylor sang,
"I didn't want to wake up/I was
havin' such a good time".
Radio
In the 1980s Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA, a Dallas/Fort Worth
radio station. The station's format is mostly R&B and Soul
oldies and their on-the-air personalities are often local R&B,
Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Mr. Taylor was billed as "The
Wailer, Johnnie Taylor."
Death
Taylor
died of a heart attack at
Charleton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, on May 31,
2000 (aged 63). Stax billed Johnnie Taylor as The
Philosopher of Soul. He was also known as the Blues Wailer. He was
buried beside his mother, Ida Mae Taylor, in Arkansas.
Awards
Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation in
1999.2010 soon to be release remixes of the late great johnny
taylor from def jam music group president la reid
Musical influence
In 2004,
the UK
's Shapeshifters sampled Taylor's 1982 "What About My
Love?", for their #1 hit single, "Lola's
Theme".
Personal life
Taylor has four children who have been recording artists. Johnnie
Taylor Jr., Floyd Taylor, Latasha "Tasha" Taylor & T.J.
Hooker-Taylor. The best known as Floyd Taylor, who has recorded
three albums for Malaco Records. Other children include Fonda
Bryant, Schiffon Taylor-Brown, Sabrina Taylor, Jonathan Taylor, and
Anthony Arnold.
External links
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