In 2022, Taylor was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame.
Johnnie Taylor was born in Crawfordsville, Arkansas, United States. He
grew up in West Memphis, Arkansas, performing in gospel groups as a
youngster. As an adult, he had one release, "Somewhere to Lay My
Head", on Chicago's Vee Jay Records label in the 1950s, as part of the
gospel group The Highway Q.C.'s, which included a young Sam Cooke.[5]
Taylor's singing then was strikingly close to that of Cooke, and he
was hired to take Cooke's place in the latter'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.[5] 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". He recorded with the label's
house band, which included Booker T. & the M.G.'s. 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",[5] 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. In 1970 Taylor
married Gerlean Rocket, with their divorce finalized on May 10, 2000,
21 days before his passing. His children from that marriage are Jon
Harrison Taylor, and Tasha Taylor, both musicians.
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 more than one million copies, 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, who were credited for keeping the company afloat in
the late 1960s and early 1970s after the death of its biggest star,
Otis Redding, in an aviation accident. He appeared in the documentary
film, Wattstax, which was released in 1973....
(Wikipedia)