Johnnie Taylor

Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1938–May 31, 2000) was a vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.

Taylor was born in Crawford, Arkansas. He had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records in the 1950s, as part of the doo-wop group Five Echoes. 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 "Rone 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, who dubbed him "The Philosopher of Soul." He went on to become their best-selling artist (outselling such names as Otis Redding and Sam & Dave). His hits included "I Had a Dream" and "I've Got to Love Somebody's Baby" and especially "Who's Making Love", which reached No. 5 on the Billboard Top 40 and No. 1 on the R&B charts in 1968.

As Stax folded with the advent of the 1970s, Taylor switched to Columbia Records and made his most well-known hit, "Disco Lady" in 1975. Columbia tried to promote him as a disco artist and neglected his wide-ranging talent. Not surprisingly, his record sales slipped.

"Disco Lady" was technically a 1976 hit and was the first certified platinum record. After Taylor's brief stint at Beverly Glenn Records in 1982, Malaco Records signed Taylor after hearing him sing at blues giant Z.Z. Hill's funeral in the spring of 1984. Malaco gave Taylor the type of recording freedom that Stax had given him in the late 1960s and early 1970s, which prompted Taylor to recording 10 albums for the Malaco label in his 16 year stint. Taylor's record sales were good but not enough for the singer to recieve the national attention as he once had. However, in 1996, with the release of Taylor's 8th album on the label, "Good Love", Taylor recieved recognition because the album reached #1 on Billboard's blues charts and #15 on trade journal's R&B charts. With this success, Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1997. Needless to say, the Good Love album has become the biggest record in Malaco's history. Johnnie Taylor died of a massive heart attack at Charleston Methodist Hospital on May 31, 2000.