The Highway Q.C.'s

Emerging as one of the foremost gospel ensembles in the years after World War II, the Highway Q.C.'s also functioned as the starting point for major secular figures such as Lou Rawls, Johnnie Taylor, and the legendary Sam Cooke. The ensemble came together in 1945 at Chicago's Highway Baptist Church, organized by a circle of teenagers that included Cooke, Creadell Copeland, Marvin and Charles Jones, plus Curtis and Lee Richardson. Cooke departed in 1951 to enter the Soul Stirrers; Lou Rawls, already seasoned from his earlier work with the Holy Wonders, took his place. Over the following years the remaining Wonders—Spencer Taylor, James Walker, and Chris Flowers—likewise became members of the Highway Q.C.'s. Rawls stayed only two seasons before moving on to the Los Angeles-based Chosen Gospel Singers, at which point Johnnie Taylor, formerly of Kansas City's Melody Kings, stepped in. The group first recorded for Vee-Jay in 1955; Spencer Taylor arrived the next year, and in 1957 Johnnie Taylor left to join the Soul Stirrers, ironically assuming the vacancy left by Cooke. Spencer Taylor continued as leader through subsequent decades and still guided the ensemble into the 1990s.