Little Johnny Taylor

Little Johnny Taylor earned his greatest renown through two slow-burning blues hits: the 1963 Galaxy single “Part Time Love,” issued by the Bay Area label, and the 1971 Ronn release “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing,” cut in Shreveport. He must be distinguished from the similarly named Johnnie Taylor, the polished Sam Cooke protégé whose 1968 Stax smash “Who’s Making Love” topped the charts and who later interpreted “Part Time Love” for the same imprint. Both singers, however, drew early strength from gospel training.

Little Johnny arrived in Los Angeles in 1950 and spent time with the Mighty Clouds of Joy before turning to secular music. Shaped by the example of Little Willie John, he first appeared on disc with two 45s for disc jockey Hunter Hancock’s Swingin’ imprint, yet wider success waited until he signed with Fantasy’s Galaxy subsidiary in 1963. There, Cliff Goldsmith’s production and Ray Shanklin’s arrangements supplied the polish that lifted his profile.

The mid-tempo shuffle “You’ll Need Another Favor,” cast in the Bobby “Blue” Bland vein, became his initial chart entry. It was quickly followed by the impassioned “Part Time Love,” an R&B number-one that fused fervent gospel phrasing with Arthur Wright’s stinging guitar lines and a heavy, horn-accented groove. Additional 1960s successes included “Since I Found a New Love” in 1964 and “Zig Zag Lightning” two years later.

Moving to Stan Lewis’s Ronn label, Taylor scored again with the 1971 slow-blues hit “Everybody Knows About My Good Thing” and its 1972 sequel, the wry “Open House at My House.” Both songs were subsequently revived by Z.Z. Hill at Malaco. During the Ronn years he also recorded duets with Ted Taylor, another unrelated namesake. Though his studio output thinned in the 1980s and 1990s, he continued performing until his death in 2002.