The Highway QC's - VeeJay Recordings

 The Highway Q.C.'s were an American gospel group active for over fifty years. The group launched the careers of several secular stars, including Lou Rawls, Johnnie Taylor, and Sam Cooke.

The Highway Q.C.'s were founded in 1945 in Chicago by a group of male teenagers who attended Highway Baptist Church, including Sam Cooke, Creadell Copeland, Marvin Jones, Charles Jones, Jake Richard, and Lee Richard. Cooke sang with the group through 1951, when he joined The Soul Stirrers; Lou Rawls took his place through 1953. Rawls had previously sung with the Holy Wonders, and eventually all of the other Wonders (Spencer Taylor, James Walker, and Chris Flowers) would also join the Highway Q.C.'s.

After Rawls's departure in 1953, Johnnie Taylor joined the group, and in 1955 they made their first recordings for Vee-Jay Records. In 1957 Taylor left the group, replacing Cooke in the Soul Stirrers as Cooke pursued a career as a solo artist. Spencer Taylor, who had joined in 1956 and was not related to Johnnie Taylor, became the group's leader after Johnnie's departure and remained so for over forty years, leading the group well into the 1990s. They would record for Savoy Records and A&M Records, among others.

Johnnie Taylor - A Retrospective

You can not love Johnnie Taylor and not absolutely require a copy of this one! ...I'm just sayin'.

One of the most awesomely gifted vocalists of the 20th century, Johnnie Harrison Taylor (1934-2000) brought both grit and grace to a variety of African-American musical styles, including gospel, blues and soul. But as the 65 selections contained in this three-disc career retrospective attest, the listener can always tell it's J.T.  Every one of the singer's greatest hits, including the chart-toppers "Who's Making Love," "Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone," "I Believe In You (You Believe In Me)," and "Disco Lady," is contained herein, along with many lesser known gems and 13 previously unissued performances.

The Soul Stirrers - Heaven Is My Home

A second July rerun this morning...

Just as the Highway Q.C.'s (the minor league club) turned to Johnnie Taylor as their sound alike replacement for Sam Cooke, so The Soul Stirrers (the major league club) were forced to make the same choice when Cooke left for secular music. Taylor later continued to walk the same path when he left the Stirrers for a secular career as a bad boy soul singer.

The first 7 tracks here with just Paul Foster singing leads clearly demonstrate why I used the term 'forced to'; while Foster is a perfectly competent singer, the group lacks the excitement of the Cooke years. Taylor rekindles that feel with an almost eerie imitation of Cooke that restores the two lead feeling of the earlier group.

Johnnie Taylor - The Philosopher of Soul

"Johnnie Harrison Taylor (May 5, 1934 – May 31, 2000 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 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. 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.
Columbia Records

Johnnie Taylor - ...Just Can't Do Right

I was happy to see that there appear to be some big time Johnnie Taylor fans here at the Blog.  I am certainly one of them.   Johnnie Taylor is one of those singers who is a constant inspiration to me.   I am the proud owner of every one of his records.

Most of JT's gospel masterpieces with the Soul Stirrers and Highway QCs have already been posted here.  I assume that most people here are already familiar with much of Johnnie Taylor's output during the time of his huge national commercial success on Stax and Columbia during the 1970s.   So I have dipped into his large output on Malaco from 1984-1999 to pull out this gem from 1991 that may not be as familiar. 

The Malaco period was the time when Johnnie Taylor moved from the large concert halls that he filled in the wake of "Disco Lady" back to the Chitlin' Circuit, where he had worked exclusively in the early-mid 1960s before striking gold with "Who's Making Love."   (In fact, before that hit, JT cashed in for a while on confusion about his name in the wake of Little Johnny Taylor's #1 R&B smash, "Part Time Love."  JT's promotional posters and materials from the early 1960s included a citation of that song!).  During the 1980s and 1990s, Johnnie Taylor continued to draw some of the largest crowds on the Circuit as one of the reining Kings of Southern Soul, and as someone who actually helped to define the genre itself.  

 In general, I am quite fond of most of JT's Malaco records.  It is true that the Malaco sound can sometimes get to feel rather formulaic.   But they always took Johnnie Taylor very seriously at Malaco, and worked hard to provide him with high quality material from George Jackson, Sam Mosley and other talented songwriters.  Almost all of Johnnie Taylor's Malaco albums have at least a few first rate compositions and performances.  " ...Just Can't Do Right" has not received as much attention as some of the other Malaco albums, but I consider it to be one of his very best of the period.   Most of the material is of notable high quality, and succeeds in putting JT solidly in his element.   It is one of JTs many albums that I still spin quite often.  I hope that you enjoy it too.