JOSEPHINE TAYLOR

The following was excerpted from the liner notes to SSR-LP-35.2 The One-derful! Collection: Mar-V-Lus, written by Robert Pruder.

Josephine Taylor was born in Evanston, Illinois on 5 October 1944. She attended Evanston High School, and as she related, “Was always involved in singing at the school... always in the Glee Club.” She also sang in church, at the Tabernacle Baptist Church where her father was an associate pastor. Unlike most other singers from her era, Taylor did not experience the traditional “paying your dues” career trajectory working in clubs before getting on record.

One evening in early 1966 she and her sister went down to the famed South Side blues club, Pepper’s Lounge (43rd and Vincennes). Said Taylor, “We went there to party, but that night they had a talent show, and my sister said, ‘Why don’t you get up there and sing?’” Taylor, who had only been singing religious songs, had no song to sing, so she made up a blues song on the spot, and amazingly won first prize.

 

 

In the audience that night was One-derful! producer-songwriter Jimmy Jones, and he was suitably impressed to give Taylor his card and told her to call the next day. Taylor did call the next day, and within a couple of months she made her debut in the recording studio, having never sung professionally before.

Taylor’s debut release on Mar-V-Lus in April of 1966 was “Good Lovin’,” a mid-tempo tough and sassy song, written and produced by Jimmy Jones. The flip, “You’re The Sweetest Thing,” was the song originally promoted, but Taylor recalls that only “Good Lovin’” got any airplay.

The next release, “What Is Love?” (on the label the title has no question mark), appeared to have been Taylor’s most popular Mar-V-Lus release, which got a lot play on the local radio stations in mid-1966. Jones wrote the song in collaboration with Larry Nestor. The flip, “I Wanna Know (Do You Care),” also was written by Jones. “Both of these songs I liked,” said Taylor, “but I didn’t sing them much.” “What is Love?” did sufficiently well in Florida, so much so that in July 1966 Taylor traveled down there to perform and then to Freeport in the Bahamas to perform at the Club Tropicana.

The final release for Taylor on Mar-V-Lus, from early 1967, was “Ordinary Guy,” where Taylor projects her vocals in a powerful performance. The record exhibits Jimmy Jones’ excellent stripped down style typical of later One-derful! productions. Jimmy Jones outdoes himself on his composing skills. The other side was also excellent. “Ain’t Gonna Cry No More” is a nice stomper in which Taylor sounds a lot like Darlene Love doing an Ike and Tina Turner type song. Not surprisingly, it sounded a bit dated for 1967. By all rights, “Ordinary Guy” deserved to be a hit.

 

For some strange reason, Mar-V-Lus left several of Taylor’s grittiest and most compelling performances in the can; three dynamite performances are included for the first time in this collection, namely the slow burning sexy “For You My Love,” the mid-tempo shouter “I Want a Man,” and the scorching “Your Love Picks Me Up.” The last song is a slight rewrite, and more powerful than the Otis Clay song, “I Don’t Know What To Do” (which first appeared on a Japanese reissue). All three are great songs, sung with absolutely authority by Taylor, and that they were not released must have killed all those involved in creating them to see their great work unheard and unrecognized.

Taylor performed in the Chicago clubs and theaters intermittently during her recording career. In August of 1967, she performed at The Hurricane (1622 E. 79th), with fellow Mar-V-Lus act, Alvin Cash, and St. Louis singer Charles Drain. In April 1968, she was at the Green Bunny (7710 S. Halsted) with McKinley Mitchell; and in September she was playing at the Burning Spear (5523 S. State) (said she, “They always had me there to sing”). Taylor’s biggest show was at the Met Theater (4644 Martin Luther King Ave), appearing with the Delfonics, Chi-lites, Renaldo Domino, and Jackson Five in April of 1969.

Taylor appeared at the Guys’ & Gals’ (846-858 W. 69th) in June 1969, along with Contributors of Soul and Larry and the Hippies (the latter recorded for Toddlin’ Town). She also mentioned performing at the High Chaparral (7740 S. Stony Island) and the Bonanza Lounge (7640 S. Halsted). “There were a lot of clubs in Chicago,” Taylor fondly remembers, “and they always wanted me to come and sing in them.”

 

 

Meanwhile, after leaving George Leaner’s operation, Taylor recorded next for the tiny Palos label, operated by Sonny Sawyer. Her one release on Palos, from 1967, was “Depend on Me,” which shows Taylor performing a deep soul ballad southern style on a tune produced and written by Jerry Mundo. The flip, “Smooth Groove,” was a routine shouter produced and written by Sonny Sawyer.

Taylor next got on record in 1969 on the Twinight label, for which one of Chicago’s major soul singers, Syl Johnson, worked as the a&r man and produced many sessions. “I’ve Made up My Mind,” another infrequent ballad outing for Taylor, showcased her delivering with southern style soul emoting. This fine song was written by a fledgling Donny Hathaway and one I. G. Watts. Hathaway and his wife sang background chorus. The record proved to be Taylor’s only chart success, when it went all the way to number 17 on the WVON radio chart from November 1969. On the flip, Taylor showed off her shouting style in the frantic “Is It Worth a Chance.”

 

Taylor retired from the soul music business after her Twinight release. She explained that she had young children to raise. But in 1974, Taylor returned to music, when she appeared in a play, “Give Us This Day,” at McCormick Place. A musical-comedy, Taylor played one of the lead roles and was one of the lead singers.

Taylor moved to California in 1977, and performed in a musical play, “Unforgettable,” in San Francisco in 1993. She performed the role of Sarah Vaughan, which reveals something about her vocal gifts, as anybody who can do the Divine One is an extraordinary singer. She also developed a modeling career.

In reflecting on her career, Taylor says, “I was so young; I don’t think I was ready for all that. It was just so much,” but she was glad for the experience and opportunity. Most important, she left a legacy of recordings that help us appreciate the riches of the Mar-V-Lus label during the golden era of soul.