- Eargasm · 1966
- Good Love! · 1996
- Gotta Get the Groove Back · 1999
- Good Love! · 1996
- The Best of Johnnie Taylor On Malaco, Vol. 1 · 1992
- Eargasm · 1976
- Good Love! · 1996
- The Best of Johnnie Taylor On Malaco, Vol. 1 · 1992
- The Best of Johnnie Taylor On Malaco, Vol. 1 · 1976
- Who's Making Love... (Remastered) · 1968
- The Best of Johnnie Taylor On Malaco, Vol. 1 · 1992
- The Best of Johnnie Taylor On Malaco, Vol. 1 · 1992
- Good Love! · 1996
Essential Albums
- Johnnie Taylor’s sophomore LP for Stax following his brilliant debut Wanted: One Soul Singer, Who’s Making Love… is one of three albums Taylor released for the label in 1968. That year was pivotal for Stax, as Otis Redding’s death and Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination in Memphis had thrown the entire operation into upheaval. Stax wasn’t only changing behind the scenes; the sound was starting to change too, and Taylor was one of the stars who held on and changed with it. Who’s Making Love… bridges the “old” Stax with the “new” Stax, as the title song and “Take Care of Your Homework” represent the formula from which all the classic Sam & Dave hits were cut, while works like “Hold On This Time” and “Poor Make Believer” hinted at a shift in arrangement and production style. Taylor had long been one of the most adaptable performers in R&B, and he never recorded any truly bad music while he was with Stax. That said, Taylor was a blues singer at heart (to this day, he is a favorite on juke joint jukeboxes throughout the South) and the music truly ignites when he digs into “Can’t Trust Your Neighbor” and “Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now.”
- 1985
About Johnnie Taylor
Known as the “Philosopher of Soul,” singer Johnnie Taylor touched on gospel, R&B, and disco over the course of his decades-long career. He’s perhaps best known for his 1976 No. 1 smash “Disco Lady.” • Taylor grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, and got his start singing in church. As a teen, he sang with the gospel group The Melody Kings and befriended Sam Cooke, then a member of the popular gospel outfit The Soul Stirrers. • He moved to Chicago in the early ’50s and sang with the doo-wop group The Five Echoes and the gospel group The Highway QCs. In 1957, he replaced Cooke in the Soul Stirrers. • In the early ’60s, after being fired from The Soul Stirrers, Taylor became the first artist signed to Cooke’s SAR label. He released a string of singles before the label dissolved following Cooke’s death in 1964. • Taylor signed with Stax Records in 1966 and broke through with the 1968 smash “Who’s Making Love,” which topped the R&B charts and went Top 5 on the Billboard Hot 100. • While at Stax, Taylor notched two more R&B chart-toppers: “Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone” (1971) and “I Believe In You (You Believe In Me)” (1974). • Having moved to Columbia Records after Stax folded, Taylor topped the pop and R&B charts with 1976’s “Disco Lady,” the first-ever single to be certified platinum. • Taylor continued recording throughout the ’90s and died in May 2000 at age 66.
- HOMETOWN
- Crawfordsville, AR, United States
- BORN
- May 5, 1934
- GENRE
- R&B/Soul