Smooth Side From Little Johnny Taylor

This track can be found on the ”Singles Mixer Vol. 2“ podcast.

One of the most recent standouts from my listening pile was today’s track “If You Love Me (Like You Say)” by our old friend (Little) Johnny Taylor.  Today’s Mr. Taylor is not to be confused with the more famous Johnnie Taylor of Stax and ‘Disco Lady’ fame.

Today’s Taylor was raised in Arkansas before moving west to LA to join the group you often find enjoying a very lonely hang out session with the Edwin Hawkins Singers, in the otherwise empty “Gospel 45s” section, The Mighty Clouds of Joy.  After leaving the Clouds, Taylor’s pursuit of a secular music career picked up when he started releasing records on the San Francisco based Galaxy.  He struck his biggest hit, reaching #1, with “Part Time Lover” a slow deep r&b/blues burner in 1963.  Today’s record, though not a charting hit, followed the next year.  It’s interesting to note how much “younger” he sounds on “If You Love Me” which was recorded and released a year later than ‘Part Time.’

After releasing a few more excellent tracks (see Zig Zag Lightning) with Galaxy with limited chart action, Taylor went on to record on the Ronn label and its subsidiary Jewel with some success into the early 70s.  All were much more ‘traditional’ sounding blues than the record we’re listening to here today and because he probably felt like making things just a little more confusing a few records he did were duets with his unrelated label mate Ted Taylor. 

Two final notes of irony: as if their names weren’t enough of a problem, Johnnie Taylor later covered “Part Time Lover” and it was released on the much better distributed Stax.  Secondly, Fantasy, the parent label of Galaxy is the label that eventually bought the bankrupt Stax records in the mid 70s.

Hope you enjoy this track as much I do!

Till next time,

-George / Snack Attack