Not just anyone could step in and become the third lead vocalist for the
Highway HQ's, whose previous two leads had been
Sam Cooke and
Lou Rawls, so there was never any doubt that
Johnnie Taylor could sing. When he signed with
Stax Records in 1966 as a solo artist, he found the perfect home, and he remained with the label until its demise in 1975, delivering an impressive R&B and soul catalog in the process, including 1973's
Taylored in Silk album, arguably his high-water mark with the imprint. The album was a departure of sorts for
Taylor, because instead of using the famed
Stax house band
the MG's, he cut the basic tracks in Muscle Shoals with keyboardist
Barry Beckett, guitarist
Jimmy Johnson, bassist
David Hood, and drummer
Roger Hawkins, adding strings and horns later as overdubs. The end result was a bit more polished than his earlier albums, and was smooth enough to play on pop radio as well as on R&B stations. All in all,
Taylored in Silk is
Taylor's most representative album, and it includes classic tracks like
"We're Getting Careless with Our Love" (one of the best vocal performances
Taylor ever cut), a fleshed-out version of
Little Willie John's
"Talk to Me" (
Taylor definitively turns the song on its head with horns, strings, and female backup singers), and his smoky remake of
Dinah Washington's
"This Bitter Earth," among others. [This reissue adds six bonus tracks drawn from the A- and B-sides of three singles issued near the same time as the album, and they round out
Taylored in Silk in fine fashion, giving a very good album an even deeper range and depth. ~ Steve Leggett
![The Very Best of Wilson Pickett [Rhino]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/0081227121228_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "The Very Best of Wilson Pickett [Rhino]")
![Otis Blue [Remastered]](http://prodimage.images-bn.com/pimages/4943674137213_p0_v1_s90x140.jpg "Otis Blue [Remastered]")
