He was eager to expand their roster of artists, and so was more than happy to sign Johnnie Taylor to a contract in January of 1966. Under his direction, the company began to produce quality LPs as well as singles and, due to his connections in radio, had more top ten hits in his first year at the company than they ever had before. Bell immediately set about his plans for improving the label, and bringing it 'up to date'. Jim Stewart brought him back to Memphis in 1965 as their first full-time promotion man. He went on to greener pastures in Washington DC, and introduced the city to authentic Southern Soul on WUST in the early sixties. I said, 'Should I go towards Detroit for Motown or should I take the southern route to Stax?' Stax won out."Īl Bell had made a name for himself in Memphis as the new suave and sophisticated voice of R&B as a dee-jay on WLOK. "I was living in Kansas City," he said, ".I got to St. After Cooke was killed in late 1964, his record labels ceased to exist, and Johnnie was left without a recording contract in 1965. Taylor would leave The Soul Stirrers in 1960, and return to singing R&B as a solo artist for SAR and its subsidiary Derby beginning in 1961 (please check out the Rome (Wasn't Built In A Day) post over on The A Side for more information about his time with SAR). When they lost their contract with Specialty Records in 1958, the Stirrers signed with Sam's new SAR label, with Stand By Me Father being the company's first release in 1959 (for more on this whole period, please visit holy ghost). Consequently, The Soul Stirrers were once again in the market for a lead singer, and convinced Johnnie to leave the Highway QCs behind and join up with them in 1957. Despite the fact that The Sensational Nightingales had already released a version of the song earlier in the year, it became a bona-fide Gospel hit that summer for the QCs.Ĭooke, of course, would leave The Soul Stirrers the following year, and launch his own pop career on the small west coast Keen label before being picked up by RCA. He encouraged them to work on Somewhere To Lay My Head, and they recorded it for Vee-Jay in May of 1955 with Johnnie Taylor on lead vocal. He was impressed with Johnnie's talent (and his whole 'dig me' attitude), and began showing up at their rehearsals. Sam heard about the cocky new lead that 'sounded just like him', and decided to check it out. Although they kind of fell apart after that, they had regrouped by early 1955 and persuaded Johnnie to leave R&B and come sing Gospel with them. When Sam Cooke was recruited by The Soul Stirrers in 1951, The Highway QCs were left without a lead singer.
Relocating further north to Chicago in the early fifties, he began singing R&B with The Five Echoes, recording for the Sabre and Vee-Jay labels in 1954. He moved with his Grandmother to Kansas City in the late forties and was singing with local Gospel quartet The Melody Kings by the time he reached his teens. Johnnie Taylor spent his early childhood in West Memphis, Arkansas, just across the river from the big town. Love In The Streets (Ain't Good As The Love At Home)
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