Early in 1971, Johnnie Taylor was in the course of his heyday at Stax Information, flying as excessive because the label itself. On February 20 that 12 months, one Stax hit changed one other on the high of the Billboard R&B checklist. Johnnie achieved his second No. 1 with “Jody’s Got Your Girl And Gone” and, within the course of, changed Rufus Thomas’ “Do The Push and Pull” on the peak.
Taylor had topped the R&B survey in 1968 with the Prime 5 US pop chart crossover “Who’s Making Love.” His subsequent run of soul hits on Stax by no means fairly reached such an enormous pop viewers once more, however “Jody,” like 4 different singles he launched after that smash, did make the Prime 30 on the Sizzling 100. The tune was written by Johnnie’s document producer Don Davis with Kent Barker and Cam Wilson, and have become a part of the One Step Past album that charted in March, reaching No.6 R&B.
“Jody” featured guitar fills by Davis himself together with the fabled Stax home band. In post-production, Temptation-esque backing vocals had been added by none aside from Taylor’s fellow Stax stars the Dramatics, whose best hour would arrive a 12 months later with their very own soul No.1, “In The Rain.”
The usually-undervalued Taylor, from Crawfordsville, Arkansas, rang up his 14th soul chart entry with “Jody,” from a formidable complete of 43 unfold over 34 years. His success got here in three distinct phases, of which the Stax period was the primary, and included a 3rd R&B bestseller with 1973’s “I Believe In You (You Believe In Me).”
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The singer moved on to a different robust interval at Columbia, most of all with the R&B and pop No.1 “Disco Lady,” after which completed with a distinguished run of releases for the unbiased southern soul label Malaco. Taylor was solely 62 when he died of a coronary heart assault in 2000. He’s fondly remembered by longtime Stax mainstay and government Deanie Parker, in the uDiscover Music Stax Legends audio sequence.
Purchase or stream “Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone” on The Very Better of Johnnie Taylor.
