Johnnie Taylor
This article needs additional citations for verification. (April 2010) |
Johnnie Taylor | |
---|---|
Occupation(s) | Singer, songwriter, record producer |
Years active | 1953–2000 |
Labels |
Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000)[2][3] was an American recording artist and songwriter who performed a wide variety of genres, from blues, rhythm and blues, soul, and gospel to pop, doo-wop, and disco. He was initially successful at Stax Records with the number-one R&B hits "Who's Making Love" (1968), "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" (1971) and "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" (1973), and reached number one on the US pop charts with "Disco Lady" in 1976.
In 2022, Taylor was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.[4]
Biography
Early years
Johnnie Taylor was born in
A few years later, after Cooke had established his independent SAR Records, Taylor signed on as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome Wasn't Built In A Day" in 1962.[5] However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964.
In 1966, Taylor moved to
During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "
Columbia Records
"For a journeyman he's a minor genius—who knows more about fucking around than Alfred Kinsey."
— Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies (1981)[8]
After Stax folded in 1975, Taylor switched to
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[5] 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, as well as in-house veterans such as 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 label in his 16-year stint.
In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco, Good Love!, reached number one on the
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 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 at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas, on May 31, 2000, aged 66.[1] 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.[10][1]
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,[11] 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".[12] In a 2021 Rolling Stone 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 M. 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 too "unrealistic for most heirs like Bryant."[13]
Awards and nominations
Taylor was given a Pioneer Award by the
Grammy Awards
Taylor was nominated for three career Grammy Awards without a win.[14]
Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result |
---|---|---|---|
1969
|
"Who's Making Love" | Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
|
Nominated |
1977
|
"Disco Lady" | Best Male R&B Vocal Performance
|
Nominated |
2001
|
Gotta Get the Groove Back | Best Traditional R&B Vocal Album
|
Nominated |
Johnnie Taylor was awarded the first-ever Platinum Record Award in history by the
Musical influence
In 2004, the UK's Shapeshifters sampled Taylor's 1982 "What About My Love?", for their No. 1 hit single, "Lola's Theme".[15]
Discography
Studio albums
Year | Album | Peak chart positions | Label | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [16] |
US R&B [16] | ||||||
1967 | Wanted: One Soul Singer | — | 26 | Stax | |||
1968 | Who's Making Love... | 42 | 5 | ||||
Raw Blues | 126 | 24 | |||||
Rare Stamps | — | 33 | |||||
1969 | The Johnnie Taylor Philosophy Continues | 109 | — | ||||
1971 | One Step Beyond | 112 | 6 | ||||
1973 | Taylored in Silk | 54 | 3 | ||||
1974 | Super Taylor | 182 | 10 | ||||
1976 | Eargasm[17] | 5 | 1 | Columbia | |||
1977 | Rated Extraordinaire | 51 | 6 | ||||
Reflections | — | — | RCA | ||||
Disco 9000 | — | — | Columbia | ||||
1978 | Ever Ready | 164 | 35 | ||||
1979 | She's Killing Me | — | 53 | ||||
1980 | A New Day | — | 75 | ||||
1982 | Just Ain't Good Enough | — | 19 | Beverly Glen | |||
1984 | This Is Your Night | — | 55 | Malaco | |||
1985 | Wall to Wall | — | 46 | ||||
1987 | Lover Boy | — | — | ||||
1988 | In Control | — | 43 | ||||
1989 | Crazy 'Bout You | — | 47 | ||||
1991 | I Know It's Wrong But I... Just Can't Do Right | — | 59 | ||||
1993 | Real Love | — | 76 | ||||
1996 | Good Love! | 108 | 15 | ||||
1998 | Taylored to Please | — | 44 | ||||
1999 | Gotta Get the Groove Back | 140 | 30 | ||||
2003 | There's No Good in Goodbye | — | 30 | ||||
"—" denotes releases that did not chart. |
Live albums
- Live at the Summit Club - Stax/Fantasy 8628 (recorded 1972; released 2007)[18]
- FunkSoulBrother - Fuel/Universal. Retrospective album[19]
Singles
Year | Single | Chart positions | |||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
US [20] |
US R&B [21] |
UK
[22] |
CAN [23] [24] | ||
1963 | "Baby, We've Got Love" | 98 | *[25] | — | — |
1966 | "I Had a Dream" | — | 19 | — | — |
"I Got to Love Somebody's Baby" | — | 15 | — | — | |
1967 | "Somebody's Sleeping in My Bed" | 95 | 33 | — | — |
1968 | "Next Time" | — | 34 | — | — |
"I Ain't Particular" | — | 45 | — | — | |
"Who's Making Love" | 5 | 1 | — | 7 | |
1969 | "Take Care of Your Homework" | 20 | 2 | — | 27 |
"Testify (I Wanna)" | 36 | 4 | — | 35 | |
"I Could Never Be President" | 48 | 10 | — | — | |
"Love Bones" | 43 | 4 | — | 38 | |
1970 | "Steal Away" | 37 | 3 | — | 36 |
"I Am Somebody Part II" | 39 | 4 | — | 45 | |
1971 | "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone" | 28 | 1 | — | — |
"I Don't Wanna Lose You" | 86 | 13 | — | — | |
"Hijackin' Love" | 64 | 10 | — | — | |
1972 | "Standing in for Jody" | 74 | 12 | — | — |
"Doing My Own Thing (Part I)" | — | 16 | — | — | |
"Stop Doggin' Me" | — | 13 | — | — | |
1973 | "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" | 11 | 1 | — | 35 |
"Cheaper to Keep Her" | 15 | 2 | — | — | |
1974 | "We're Getting Careless with Our Love" | 34 | 5 | — | 77 |
"I've Been Born Again" | 78 | 13 | — | — | |
"It's September" | — | 26 | — | — | |
1975 | "Try Me Tonight" | — | 51 | — | — |
1976 | "Disco Lady" | 1 | 1 | 25 | 14 |
"Somebody's Gettin' It" | 33 | 5 | — | 94 | |
1977 | "Love Is Better in the A.M. (Part 1)" | 77 | 3 | — | 63 |
"Your Love Is Rated X" | — | 17 | — | — | |
"Disco 9000" | 86 | 24 | — | — | |
1978 | "Keep On Dancing" | — | 32 | — | — |
"Ever Ready" | — | 84 | — | — | |
1979 | "(Ooh-Wee) She's Killing Me" / "Play Something Pretty" |
— | 37 79 |
— | — |
1980 | "I Got This Thing for Your Love" | — | 77 | — | — |
1982 | "What About My Love" | — | 24 | — | — |
1983 | "I'm So Proud" | — | 55 | — | — |
1984 | "Lady, My Whole World Is You" | — | 74 | — | — |
1987 | "Don't Make Me Late" | — | 74 | — | — |
1990 | "Still Crazy for You" | — | 60 | — | — |
"—" denotes releases that did not chart or were not released in that territory. |
References
- ^ a b c "Johnnie Harrison Taylor (1934-2000)". Encyclopedia of Arkansas. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ^ Montier, Patrick. "Johnnie Taylor". Staxrecords.free.fr. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ^ Huey, Steve. "Artist Biography". AllMusic. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- ^ a b c "BLUES HALL OF FAME - About/Inductions". Blues.org. Retrieved March 20, 2022.
- ^ ISBN 1-85227-745-9.
- ^ ISBN 0-214-20512-6.
- ^ Tobler, John (1992). NME Rock 'N' Roll Years (1st ed.). London: Reed International Books Ltd. p. 241. CN 5585.
- ISBN 089919026X. Retrieved March 15, 2019 – via robertchristgau.com.
- ISBN 1-904994-10-5.
- ^ Weber, Erika (August 6, 2018). "Johnnie Harrison Taylor (1934-2000) •". Blackpast.org. Retrieved July 9, 2021.
- ^ "Contact Support". Estateofdenial.com. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
- ^ "The Estate of Johnnie Taylor". IMDb.com. November 16, 2011. Retrieved May 18, 2018.
- ^ Bernstein, Jonathan (November 2, 2021). "He Scored the First Platinum Hit. 45 Years Later, His Family Is Fighting for Every Penny". Rolling Stone. Retrieved July 16, 2022.
- ^ a b "Johnnie Taylor". Grammy.com. June 4, 2019.
- Official Charts. Retrieved November 2, 2022.
- ^ a b "Johnnie Taylor - Awards". AllMusic. Archived from the original on September 12, 2012. Retrieved March 5, 2022.
- ^ "Eargasm - Johnnie Taylor". AllMusic. Retrieved June 23, 2021.
- ^ "Johnnie Taylor | Discography". AllMusic. Retrieved April 7, 2014.
- ^ "CD Reviews: The Beta Band, Default, Toploader and many more". Chart Attack. July 17, 2001. Archived from the original on July 19, 2001.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link) - ISBN 0-89820-155-1.
- ^ Whitburn, Joel (1996). Top R&B/Hip-Hop Singles: 1942-1995. Record Research. p. 435.
- ISBN 0-00-717931-6.
- ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles". Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ "RPM Top 100 Singles". Library and Archives Canada.
- ^ No Billboard R&B chart published in this period.
External links
- Complete Discography
- Johnnie Taylor discography at Discogs
- Johnnie Taylor at AllMusic
- Wanted One Soul Singer - Johnnie Taylor
- Johnnie Taylor at IMDb