Who's Making Love...

Performer: Johnnie Taylor
Engineer: Ron Capone
Producer: Don Davis; Don David; Al Jackson, Jr.
Distributor: Fantasy (distributor)

Notes: Personnel: Johnnie Taylor (vocals); Booker T. and the MG's, The Memphis Horns, Isaac Hayes (guitar); Alan Jones (piano). Recorded at Stax Studio, Memphis Tennessee, May and October, 1967, June and November 1968. Personnel: Johnnie Taylor (vocals); Steve Cropper (guitar); The Memphis Horns (horns); Isaac Hayes, Allen Jones (piano); Booker T. Jones (organ); Al Jackson, Jr. (drums); Booker T. & the MG's (background vocals). Audio Remasterer: Kirk Felton. Audio Remixers: Don Davis ; Ron Capone. Recording information: Stax Recording Studio, Memphis, TN (05/1967-11/1968). Photographer: William R. Eastabrook. Unknown Contributor Roles: Donald "Duck" Dunn; Isaac Hayes; Al Jackson, Jr.; Allen Jones ; Steve Cropper; The Memphis Horns; Booker T. & the MG's; Booker T. Jones. Former preacher Johnnie Taylor had already recorded a few songs on Sam Cooke's SAR label before he signed with Stax and released his first solo LP in 1966. Two years later the man called "the Philosopher of Soul" hit the top of the R&B charts with his breakthrough album, WHO'S MAKING LOVE. Produced by Al Jackson and Don Davis, WHO'S MAKING LOVE mixes elements of gospel-influenced blues and soul, while Johnnie's impassioned preacher-at-the-pulpit vocals tell tales of love and pain, romance gone wrong, suspicion, and jealousy. This inspired sophomore effort heralded the arrival of an exceptional solo singer and marked the beginning of a string of successes with Stax that would make Johnnie Taylor the label's all-time highest selling artist. The song "Who's Making Love?" was among Johnnie Taylor's biggest chart hits, with Taylor's tough but impassioned vocal supported by a potently energetic performance by the usual Stax Records crew (including Steve Cropper, Donald "Duck" Dunn, and the Memphis Horns. But Who's Making Love, the album assembled to accompany the single, is for the most part dominated by more measured and blues-based material. While "Take Care of Your Homework" generates a potent groove (and reads like a sequel to "Who's Making Love"), and "Hold on This Time" is a remarkably successful emulation of the Motown production style, for the most part, Who's Making Love suggests Taylor was most comfortable with slow, sorrowful laments such as "Can't Trust Your Neighbor" and "Poor Make Believer," and while these tunes lack the dancefloor drive of Taylor's uptempo hits, no one can deny he knows how to make the most of the dramatic sweep of a tale of love gone wrong, and his tales of lovers gone astray (and paying the price) carry a weight not unlike that of his earlier gospel period. Who's Making Love captures some of the high points of Taylor's career as a Southern soul man, and finds him nodding to his past and well as his future in his search for inspiration. ~ Mark Deming

Mojo (Publisher) (12/00, p.125) - "...A timely reminder of his gifts....sophisticated slices of gospel-edged soul, moving Stax in a slicker direction than their earlier hits..."

Johnnie Taylor first achieved notoriety when he joined Sam Cooke's former group, the Soul Stirrers, in 1957. Taylor's blues-based R&B records of the '60s, like his biggest hit, "Who's Makin' Love?," featured an irresistible beat and Taylor's gruff, emphatic vocals. While he never achieved the fame of Otis Redding or Wilson Pickett, Taylor stuck around long enough to enjoy a second surge in popularity with the lusty hit "Disco Lady" in 1976.

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