Malaco recorded a live video of Taylor at the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas in the summer of 1997. In 1996, Taylor's eighth album for Malaco, Good Love!, made it to Number One on Billboard's Blues chart (#15 R&B), the biggest record in Malaco's history. Taylor's record sales were good but not enough for the singer to receive the measure of stardom he once had. Backed by members of The Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section as well as in-house veterans like former Stax keyboardist Carson Whitsett, 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. Not surprisingly, his record sales slipped.Īfter 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. Columbia pigeonholed Taylor as a disco artist, however, and neglected his wide-ranging talent. "Disco Lady" was the first certified platinum single. During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "Cheaper to Keep Her" (Mack Rice) and producer Don Davis's "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)".Īfter Stax folded in the mid 1970s, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he made his best-known hit, "Disco Lady", in 1976. 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. While there he recorded with the label's house band, Booker T. In 1966, Taylor moved to Stax Records in Memphis, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul".
However, SAR Records quickly became defunct after Cooke's death in 1964. Taylor 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.Taylor was also part of the gospel group,The Highway QC's also,replacing Sam Cooke,who had become the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers in 1951.Then,after Cooke left the Soul Stirrers in 1957,Taylor was hired to take Cooke's place as lead singer.Ī 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. Taylor 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.Taylor was also part of the gospel group,The Highway QC's also,replacing Sam Cooke,who had become the lead singer of the Soul Stirrers in 1951.Then,after Cooke left the Soul Stirrers in 1957,Taylor was hired to take Cooke's place as lead singer. Johnnie Harrison Taylor (born May 5, 1937, Crawfordsville, Arkansas died May 31, 2000, Dallas, Texas) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from gospel, blues and soul to pop, doo-wop and disco.