Little Johnny Taylor - Galaxy Hits & 2 Ronn's

This guy didn't make much of a ripple the first time I offered "Open House", but maybe pairing it with the earlier Galaxy disc this time will help. I would love it if someone could scare up some of his earlier gospel material.

 "Born in Gregory, Arkansas, United States, he is frequently confused with his contemporary and near namesake Johnnie Taylor, especially since the latter made a cover version of the song that Little Johnny Taylor was most famous for, "Part Time Love" (1963), and the fact that both men began their careers as gospel singers.

Little Johnny Taylor moved to Los Angeles in 1950, and sang with the Mighty Clouds of Joy before moving into secular music. Influenced primarily by Little Willie John, (and Ted Taylor), he first recorded as an R&B artist for the Swingin' record label.

However, he did not achieve major success until signing for San Francisco-based Fantasy Records' subsidiary label, Galaxy. His first hit was the mid-tempo blues "You'll Need Another Favor," sung in the style of Bobby Bland, with arrangement by Ray Shanklin and produced by Cliff Goldsmith. The follow-up, "Part Time Love", became his biggest hit, reaching #1 in the U.S. Billboard R&B chart, and # 19 on the pop chart, in October 1963. However, follow-ups on the Galaxy label were much less successful. (I can't figure out why, they seem of uniformly high quality to me.)

By 1971, Taylor had moved to the Ronn label subsidiary of Jewel Records in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he had his second R&B Top 10 hit with "Everybody Knows About My Good Thing". The following year, he had another hit with "Open House at My House". While at Ronn, Taylor also recorded some duets with Ted Taylor (also unrelated). (I have that if anyone is interested)

Though he recorded only sparingly during the 1980s and 1990s, he remained an active performer until his death in May 2002 in Conway, Arkansas."

I once saw LJT and Percy Sledge at the same mini-fest in Golden Gate Park...I felt like I was the only one there who even knew who they were.

Diggin' Gold - A Galaxy of West Coast Blues

 In the early to mid-'60s, the Galaxy label was probably best known for issuing Little Johnny Taylor's big 1963 hit "Part Time Love." It also cut a lot of other sides (usually in Los Angeles) at the time that satisfyingly blended R&B, blues, and soul, often with urbane brassy arrangements. Diggin' Gold: A Galaxy of West Coast Blues collects 25 such productions from 1962-1965, some of them previously unreleased. For many soul collectors, the most eye-catching items will be the eight tracks by Little Johnny Taylor: "Part Time Love" isn't among them, but they do include three previously unreleased recordings, while the other five are LP and single cuts that hadn't previously appeared on CD. But the whole disc is solid -- surprisingly so, given how often many single-label rarity anthologies offer more archival value than entertainment. Much of the material will recall Ray Charles as the most frequent reference point in its blues-R&B-jazz mix (and, much less strongly, Bobby "Blue" Bland and B.B. King), and while Los Angeles R&B had been doing that since the late '40s and early '50s, these well-produced sides have a more modern feel that makes them more akin to bluesy soul than early R&B. While the Taylor collectibles on this disc are decent (and he's the only really familiar name in the artist roster), they aren't necessarily the standouts. Bill McAfee's "I Don't Know Why" is one of the most dead-on emulations of early-'60s Ray Charles you'll hear, and Joe Johnson's "Rattlesnake, Baby, Rattlesnake" and "Gold Digging Man" push the CD closest to '60s dance soul. The interface between blues and soul is too often overlooked by both historians and collectors, and this is a recommended release for those who enjoy the hybrid and want to hear quality efforts in that tributary that they probably haven't been able to previously experience. ~ Richie Unterberger, Rovi

Certainly the Little Johnny Taylor stuff is exciting but check out Rob Robinson (whoever the hell HE was), the guy is dynamite.