Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000)
was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from
blues,
rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...
,
soul
In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being".
Etymology
The Modern English noun '' soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest atte ...
, and
gospel
Gospel originally meant the Christian message (" the gospel"), but in the 2nd century it came to be used also for the books in which the message was set out. In this sense a gospel can be defined as a loose-knit, episodic narrative of the words a ...
to
pop,
doo-wop, and
disco.
In 2022, Taylor was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
.
Biography
Early years
Johnnie Taylor was born in
Crawfordsville, Arkansas, United States.
He grew up in
West Memphis, Arkansas, performing in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on
Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
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, coordinates =
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, subdivision_name ...
's
Vee Jay Records label
A label (as distinct from signage) is a piece of paper, plastic film, cloth, metal, or other material affixed to a container or product, on which is written or printed information or symbols about the product or item. Information printed ...
in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group
The Highway Q.C.'s, which included a young
Sam Cooke.
Taylor's singing then was strikingly close to that of Cooke, and he was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter's gospel group, the
Soul Stirrers, in 1957.
A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent
SAR Records
SAR Records was a record company founded by soul music legend Sam Cooke in 1961. The meaning of "SAR" has been disputed; it has been listed as "Sam & Alex Records" (J.W. Alexander was Cooke's business, song-writing associate, and friend) and also a ...
, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts 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
Stax Records is an American record company, originally based in Memphis, Tennessee. Founded in 1957 as Satellite Records, the label changed its name to Stax Records in 1961. It also shared its operations with sister label Volt Records.
Stax was ...
in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...
, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". He recorded with the label's
house band, which included
Booker T. & the M.G.'s. His hits included "I Had a Dream", "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" (both
written
Writing is a medium of human communication which involves the representation of a language through a system of physically inscribed, mechanically transferred, or digitally represented symbols.
Writing systems do not themselves constitute h ...
by the team of
Isaac Hayes and
David Porter) and most notably "
Who's Making Love
"Who's Making Love" is a song written by Stax Records staffers Homer Banks, Bettye Crutcher, Don Davis and Raymond Jackson and recorded by singer Johnnie Taylor in 1968.
Released on the Stax label in the late summer of 1968, it became Taylor' ...
",
which reached No. 5 on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the
R&B chart in 1968. "Who's Making Love" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a
gold disc
Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...
. In 1970, Taylor married Gerlean Rocket and they remained married until his death in 2000.
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
A record producer is a recording project's creative and technical leader, commanding studio time and coaching artists, and in popular genres typically creates the song's very sound and structure. Virgil Moorefield"Introduction" ''The Producer as ...
Don Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)", which reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart. "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" also sold in excess of one million copies, and was awarded gold disc status by the
R.I.A.A. in October 1973.
Taylor, along with Isaac Hayes and
The Staple Singers, was one of the label's flagship artists, who were credited for keeping the company afloat in the late 1960s and early 1970s after the death of its biggest star,
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...
, in an aviation accident. He appeared in the documentary film, ''
Wattstax
''Wattstax'' was a benefit concert organized by Stax Records to commemorate the seventh anniversary of the 1965 riots in the African-American community of Watts, Los Angeles. The concert took place at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on August 20, ...
'', which was released in 1973.
Columbia Records
After Stax folded in 1975, Taylor switched to
Columbia Records, where he recorded his biggest success with Don Davis still in charge of production, "
Disco Lady
"Disco Lady" is a 1976 single by American singer Johnnie Taylor that went on to become his biggest hit. It spent four weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and six weeks on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart in the U.S. It was also the first sing ...
", in 1976.
It spent four weeks at number one on the
''Billboard'' Hot 100 and six weeks at the top of the R&B chart. It peaked at No. 25 in the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
in May 1976.
"Disco Lady" was the first certified
platinum single (two million copies sold) by the
RIAA.
Taylor recorded several more successful albums and R&B single hits with Davis on Columbia, before Brad Shapiro took over production duties, but sales generally fell away.
Malaco Records
After a short stay at a small independent label in Los Angeles, Beverly Glen Records, Taylor signed with
Malaco Records
Malaco Records is an American independent record label based in Jackson, Mississippi, United States, that has been the home of various major blues and gospel acts, such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland, Mel Waiters, Z. Z. Hill, Denise LaSalle, ...
after the company's founder Tommy Couch and producing partner Wolf Stephenson heard him sing at blues singer
Z. Z. Hill's funeral in spring 1984.
Backed by members of the
Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section
The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section is a group of American session musicians based in the northern Alabama town of Muscle Shoals. One of the most prominent American studio house bands from the 1960s to the 1980s, these musicians, individually or a ...
, as well as in-house veterans such as former
Stax
Streaming API for XML (StAX) is an application programming interface ( API) to read and write XML documents, originating from the Java programming language community.
Traditionally, XML APIs are either:
* DOM based - the entire document is read i ...
keyboardist
Carson Whitsett
James Carson Whitsett (May 1, 1945 – May 8, 2007) was an American keyboardist, songwriter, and record producer.
Biography
Carson Whitsett was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He joined his older brother Tim's band, Tim Whitsett & The Imperials ( ...
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 label in his 16-year stint.
In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco, ''Good Love!'', reached number one on the ''
Billboard''
Top Blues Albums
The ''Billboard'' charts tabulate the relative weekly popularity of songs and albums in the United States and elsewhere. The results are published in ''Billboard'' magazine. ''Billboard'' biz, the online extension of the ''Billboard'' charts, pr ...
chart (No. 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
Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County ...
, in the summer of 1997. The club portion of the ''Good Love'' video was recorded at 1001 Nightclub in
Jackson, Mississippi
Jackson, officially the City of Jackson, is the capital of and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Mississippi. The city is also one of two county seats of Hinds County, along with Raymond. The city had a population of 153,701 at t ...
.
Taylor's final song was "Soul Heaven", in which he dreamed of being at a concert featuring deceased African-American music icons from
Louis Armstrong to
Otis Redding
Otis Ray Redding Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American singer and songwriter. He is considered one of the greatest singers in the history of American popular music and a seminal artist in soul music and rhythm and blues. ...
to Z.Z. Hill to
The Notorious B.I.G., among others.
Radio
In the 1980s, Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on
KKDA, a radio station in the Dallas area, where he had made his home. The station's format was mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities were often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor".
Death
Taylor died of a
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
at Charlton Methodist Hospital in
Dallas
Dallas () is the List of municipalities in Texas, third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of metropolitan statistical areas, fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 ...
,
Texas
Texas (, ; Spanish: ''Texas'', ''Tejas'') is a state in the South Central region of the United States. At 268,596 square miles (695,662 km2), and with more than 29.1 million residents in 2020, it is the second-largest U.S. state by ...
, on May 31, 2000, aged 66.
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, at Forrest Hill Cemetery in
Kansas City,
Missouri
Missouri is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee): Iowa to the north, Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee to the east, Arkansas t ...
.
His highly complex personal life was revealed after his death. Having six accepted children and three others with confirmed paternity born to three different mothers, the difficulties associated with executing his will were presented in an episode of the TV program ''The Will: Family Secrets Revealed'' called "The Estate of Johnnie Taylor". In a 2021 ''
Rolling Stone
''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its ...
'' article, Fonda Bryant, one of the nine heirs of Taylor's estate, shared some of the complexities that she and her other siblings have had to deal with during the past decade regarding her father's royalty payments from
Sony Music. Bryant believed that the alleged lack of transparency concerning those payouts was reason enough for Sony to disclose her father's personal information. Sony's refusal to do so left Bryant and the other heirs in the dark. Music industry attorney
Erin Jacobson stated in the article that "'a label is not just going to turn over a bunch of financial records to anyone that asks for it.'" An audit is a viable option for "heirs who are distrustful of a label's accounting" practices. The down side to doing one, though, is the exorbitant amount of money that it would cost to do so, something to "unrealistic for most heirs like Bryant."
Awards and nominations
Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation in 1999. Taylor was also a three-time
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...
nominee.
In 2015 Taylor was inducted into the
National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. In 2022, Taylor was inducted into the
Blues Hall of Fame
The Blues Hall of Fame is a music museum located at 421 S. Main Street in Memphis, Tennessee. Initially, the "Blues Hall of Fame" was not a physical building, but a listing of people who have significantly contributed to blues music. Started in 1 ...
.
His induction citation stated "Taylor liked to emphasize that he could sing more than blues, as indeed he amply proved when performing gospel and soul, but among African-American audiences, he reigned as the top headliner of his era at blues events".
Grammy Awards
Taylor was nominated for three career
Grammy Awards without a win.
, -
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1969
, rowspan="1", "
Who's Making Love
"Who's Making Love" is a song written by Stax Records staffers Homer Banks, Bettye Crutcher, Don Davis and Raymond Jackson and recorded by singer Johnnie Taylor in 1968.
Released on the Stax label in the late summer of 1968, it became Taylor' ...
"
,
Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
,
, -
, rowspan="1",
1977
Events January
* January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group.
* January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democrat ...
, rowspan="1", "
Disco Lady
"Disco Lady" is a 1976 single by American singer Johnnie Taylor that went on to become his biggest hit. It spent four weeks at No. 1 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and six weeks on the ''Billboard'' R&B chart in the U.S. It was also the first sing ...
"
,
Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
,
, -
, rowspan="1",
2001
, rowspan="1", ''Gotta Get the Groove Back''
,
Best Traditional R&B Vocal Album
,
, -
Johnnie Taylor was awarded the ''first-ever'' Platinum Record Award in history by the
RIAA for his two-million-selling smash hit, "Disco Lady".
Musical influence
In 2004, the UK's
Shapeshifters sampled
Sample or samples may refer to:
Base meaning
* Sample (statistics), a subset of a population – complete data set
* Sample (signal), a digital discrete sample of a continuous analog signal
* Sample (material), a specimen or small quantity of so ...
Taylor's 1982 "What About My Love?", for their No. 1 hit single, "
Lola's Theme".
Discography
Studio albums
Live albums
*''Live at the Summit Club'' - Stax/Fantasy 8628 (recorded 1972; released 2007)
* ''FunkSoulBrother'' - Fuel/Universal. Retrospective album
Singles
References
External links
Complete Discography*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, Johnnie
1934 births
2000 deaths
American blues singers
American rhythm and blues singers
American gospel singers
American soul musicians
Soul-blues musicians
Blues musicians from Arkansas
People from Crittenden County, Arkansas
People from West Memphis, Arkansas
Stax Records artists
20th-century American singers
Singers from Arkansas
20th-century American male singers
Malaco Records artists
Singer-songwriters from Arkansas