The name “Taylor” is royalty in Soul music, thanks to the late Johnnie Taylor. His son, the recently departed Floyd Taylor, took the torch and ran with it following his father’s death and made a name for himself all the way up to his own death this past year.
After successful albums with Malaco Records he had signed with CDS Records for one album. That album is now being released in expanded form as “‘Bout It ‘Bout It: All Of Me Deluxe.” This 16-track package features the full out-of-print All Of Me (which features the hit songs “I’m ‘Bout It ‘Bout It”, “All Of You, All Of Me”, “Baby I Love You” and “(Time Out) Cut To The Chase”) album along with six bonus tracks, five of which have never been released.
Floyd Singletary (Taylor), was born in Chicago and sang with a band at Dusable High School in Chicago, where he graduated. His first shows were at the Regal Theater in Chicago but Floyd held day jobs working at Children’s Memorial Hospital and Mercy Hospital while waiting for his chance to follow in his father’s footsteps.
During the 1970’s, Floyd joined his father on several concert tours and also performed with other big names like Natalie Cole, Patti LaBelle, Aretha Franklin, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Bobby Womack, and more. Floyd remained a member of the Johnnie Taylor revue, off and on, from the mid-seventies until 1999. He also worked around Chicago on the local club circuit; his uncanny resemblance to Johnnie, both physically and vocally, immediately attracted attention. Then, on Wednesday, May 31, 2000, Johnnie Taylor died in his home in the Dallas suburb of Duncanville. Among those who sang for him at the service that day was Floyd; among the congregants who heard Floyd sing was Tommy Couch Jr. of Malaco Records, who signed him shortly thereafter. (Ironically, Johnnie himself had joined Malaco after Couch heard him sing at the funeral of soul-blues pioneer Z.Z. Hill in 1984).
Floyd Taylor passed away at the age of 60 in February of this year.
