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The song "Who's Making Love?" was among Johnnie Taylor's biggest chart hits, with Taylor's tough but impassioned vocal supported by a potently energetic performance by the usual Stax Records crew (including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the Memphis Horns. But Who's Making Love, the album assembled to accompany the single, is for the most part dominated by more measured and blues-based material. While "Take Care of Your Homework" generates a potent groove (and reads like a sequel to "Who's Making Love"), and "Hold on This Time" is a remarkably successful emulation of the Motown production style, for the most part, Who's Making Love suggests Taylor was most comfortable with slow, sorrowful laments such as "Can't Trust Your Neighbor" and "Poor Make Believer," and while these tunes lack the dancefloor drive of Taylor's uptempo hits, no one can deny he knows how to make the most of the dramatic sweep of a tale of love gone wrong, and his tales of lovers gone astray (and paying the price) carry a weight not unlike that of his earlier gospel period. Who's Making Love captures some of the high points of Taylor's career as a Southern soul man, and finds him nodding to his past and well as his future in his search for inspiration.
Biography:
Johnnie Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000) was an American vocalist in a wide variety of genres, from rhythm and blues, soul, blues and gospel to pop, doo-wop and disco.
Johnnie Harrison Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas. As a child, he grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas and performed in gospel groups as a youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My Head", on Chicago's Chance Records label in the 1950s, as part of the gospel group Highway QCs, which had been founded by a young Sam Cooke. 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 as one of the label's first acts and recorded "Rome 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, Tennessee, where he was dubbed "The Philosopher of Soul". Whilst there he recorded with the label's house band, Booker T. & the MGs. 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. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and No. 1 on the R&B chart in 1968. "Who's Making Love" sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.
During his tenure at Stax, he became an R&B star, with over a dozen chart successes, such as "Jody's Got Your Girl and Gone", which reached No. 23 on the Hot 100 chart, "Cheaper to Keep Her" (Mack Rice) and record producer Don Davis's penned "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)", which reached No. 11 on the Hot 100 chart. "I Believe in You (You Believe in Me)" also sold in excess of one million units, and was awarded gold disc status by the R.I.A.A. in October 1973. Taylor, along with Isaac Hayes and The Staple Singers was one of the label's flagship artists. He appeared in the documentary film, Wattstax, which was released in 1973.
After Stax folded in the mid 1970s, Taylor switched to Columbia Records, where he made his best known hit, "Disco Lady", in 1976. It peaked at #25 in the UK Singles Chart in May 1976. "Disco Lady" was the first certified platinum single (two million copies sold) by the RIAA.
In the 1980s Johnnie Taylor was a DJ on KKDA, a Dallas/Fort Worth radio station. The station's format is mostly R&B and Soul oldies and their on-the-air personalities are often local R&B, Soul, blues, and jazz musicians. Mr. Taylor was billed as "The Wailer, Johnnie Taylor."
Taylor died of a heart attack at Charlton Methodist Hospital in Dallas, Texas on May 31, 2000, aged 63. 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, in Arkansas.
01. Who's Making Love? Banks, Crutcher, Davis, Jackson… 2:47
02. I'm Not the Same Person Crutcher, Jones, Jones 3:03
03. Hold on This Time Banks, Davis, Davis, Jackson, Jackson 2:36
04. Woman Across the River Crutcher, Jones, Jones 3:14
05. Can't Trust Your Neighbor Hayes, Hayes, Porter, Porter 2:39
06. Take Care of Your Homework Banks, Davis, Jackson, Kelly, Kelly 2:39
07. I'm Trying Hayes, Hayes, Porter, Porter 2:59
08. Poor Make Believer Banks, Davis, Lately 2:42
09. Payback Hurts Cropper, Taylor 2:28
10. Mr. Nobody Is Somebody Now Banks, Davis, Jackson, Jackson 3:21
11. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water Miller 2:56
12. Rumors Unknown 2:47