Wednesday 3 June 2009

JOHNNIE TAYLOR - WHO'S MAKING LOVE (STAX 1968) Jap mastering cardboard sleeve + 1 bonus




Despite Johnnie Taylor's awesome run of hit records, he remains somewhat of an enigma, perhaps the most underrated recording artist of all time. Never-the-less, over the past twenty-five years, this 48-year old singing sensation has been one of the most versatile and durable recording artists of the era. With a career than embraced Gospel, Pop, Blues, Doo Wopp, Memphis Soul, and even Disco, Taylor has proven he can handle any piece of music.
Taylor first recorded in the early fifties as part of the Five Echoes, a Doo-wopp group that had one release on the Chance label in Chicago. However, he didn't receive any real recognition of "SOMEWHERE TO LAY MY HEAD". Taylor's lead singing was strikingly close to Sam Cooke, so it wasn't surprising that he took Cooke's place in the Soul Stirrers in 1957. During the next two years, Taylor would make a number of fine recordings with that group, but he eventually left to pursue a short career as a preacher.
In the interim, Sam Cooke had formed the Sar label as a sideline to his own successful recording career. Ironically, Cooke recruited Taylor for the label with the intention of making him a Pop / R&B attraction. Taylor would score with "ROME WASN'T BUILT IN A DAY" in 1962, but his recording career bogged down temporarily when Sar's operations were suspended after the tragic death of Sam Cooke.
All that was remedied in 1966 when Taylor signed on with Stax Records in Memphis, scoring with the bluesy "I HAD A DREAM" and "I'VE GOT TO LOVE SOMEBODY'S BABY". Two years later, Taylor's style easily adapted to the demands of modern Soul with his recording of "WHO'S MAKING LOVE", which shot to the top of the R&B charts. The record sold more than two million singles, and established Taylor as one of the nation's premier Soul attractions.
For the next seven years, Taylor's name rarely left the bestseller list. His first million seller was followed by such classics as "TAKE CARE OF YOUR HOMEWORK", "JODY'S GOT YOUR GIRL", "STEAL AWAY" and "CHEAPER TO KEEP HER" to name a few. It's true that much ink has been spilled documenting the contributions Otis Redding, Booker T & The M.G.'s, Issac Hayes and Sam & Dave made to Stax Records, but in fact, Johnnie Taylor was their all time best selling recording artist.
With the demise of Stax, Taylor moved over to Columbia, waxing the mega-hit, "DISCO LADY", which was at the top of everybody's charts in 1975. Unfortunately, Columbia didn't fully recognize Taylor's talent, and they were content to mistakenly cast him as merely a Disco artist. Not surprisingly, his record sales slipped.
After leaving Columbia, he made a brief stop at Beverly Glen Records in 1982, recording a reasonable album and climbing back into the charts with the "WHAT ABOUT MY LOVE" single. But, as Taylor admits, at the time he was looking for a record company that would work closely with him just as Stax once had.
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Johnnie Taylor died of a heart attack on may 31st, 2000 and is buried at the Forrest Hill Cemetery, Kansas City, Missouri.
Here

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi, thank you for your work and the fantastic music. most of this stuff i never heard. i have one question. where can i buy all this cd´d? is there an online shop? lg, michael

Georgie Hirezola said...

there are many online shops like the "Amazon" or the "CD Universe"...
but if you want to buy Japanese issues at the best prices you must order them directly from Japan!
The links to the best two Japanese online shops (HMV Japan) & (CD Japan) are here in my blog!... just click 'em!!!!

coates said...

Thanks for all the time you take to upload these diamonds. I have also bought some of them when I travelled in Japan.
With this CD of Johnnie Taylor I have a problem, where can I download it?
Wish you a nice weekend.

Georgie Hirezola said...

oh! I'm sorry!!I forgot to post the link....guess it's OK now!
thanks for your comment..
Georgie++++++

Paolo said...

Thanks for sharing the treasure! Looking forward to this!

Thea said...

So many beautiful music, thank you

Darren said...

Love this, and the other (Little) Johnny Taylor posts. Thank you

iservepharmacy said...

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Vinyl Records Lover said...

Johnnie Taylor was one of the all time greats of soul music. He will truly be missed. He always make me think back to who's making love to my old lady whenever I leave the house. LOL! R.I.P. Johnnie Taylor.