Johnnie Taylor - The Second Disc

The Living Word: New Box Sets Chronicle Wattstax in Full, 50 Years On

December 12, 2022 by Mike Duquette | 2 Comments

One of the greatest music festivals of the ’70s is getting celebrated with an exhaustive array of reissues in 2023: Wattstax, the multi-dimensional Los Angeles celebration of soul, funk, blues and gospel courtesy of Stax Records. A half-century after the premiere of a Golden Globe-nominated documentary on the star-studded 1972 event, Craft Recordings, custodian of the Stax catalogue, will release the most definitive looks at Wattstax, most recently addressed in a 3CD box set in 2003 that took the highlights of both double albums from 1973 and added even more material. Soul’d…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Comedy, Funk, Gospel, Pop, R&B/Soul, Soundtracks

Tags:

Albert King, Carla Thomas, David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Kim Weston, Mavis Staples, Richard Pryor, Rufus Thomas, The Bar-Kays, The Emotions, The Staple Singers, William Bell

I’ve Been Loving You: Vinyl Me, Please Spotlights Stax Classics in New VMP Anthology Box

December 11, 2019 by Sam Stone | No Comments

Vinyl Me Please is at it again! Following their celebrations of Blue Note, Motown, and Ghostly International, the subscription service is set to release a new volume of their acclaimed VMP Anthology Series. This time, they’re shining a light on the history of Stax Records. As with previous volumes, The Story of Stax Records will be told in four chapters. The eight albums included in the box will be wrapped in “secrecy sleeves” that can be unveiled at specific points in the journey. Though titles have not been revealed, VMP has announced…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, David Porter, Eddie Floyd, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, Sam and Dave, Steve Cropper, The Bar-Kays, William Bell

Gotta Groove: Craft’s “Soul Explosion” Stax Celebration Continues With 5 New Reissues

October 29, 2019 by Sam Stone | 2 Comments

This fall, Craft Recordings will continue its celebration of the rich and varied sounds of Stax Records with a further batch of reissues in the Soul Explosion series. The year-long campaign puts a spotlight on Stax’s years as an independent label following their split from Atlantic fifty years ago. During that period, the label released a staggering 27 albums and 30 singles in just a handful of months. With a host of hits and best-selling albums from evergreen acts and new signers-on alike, Stax proved its strength as one of the top…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Booker T. and the MG's, David Porter, Delaney and Bonnie, Johnnie Taylor, The Bar-Kays

I’ve Got A Sure Thing: Craft Presents “Soul Explosion” Vinyl Reissue, Plus A Month of Stax Digital Rarities

May 9, 2019 by Sam Stone | 2 Comments

Craft Recordings has announced the next phase of its campaign to honor one of the great labels of soul – Stax Records. Entitled “Soul Explosion,” the campaign began with their Record Store Day releases of Boy Meets Girl: Classic Stax Duets, Stax Does The Beatles and the first-ever mono reissue of Albert King’s Born Under A Bad Sign. The next phase begins on May 31 and will see new vinyl and digital reissues of classics from 1969, which proved to be a watershed year for the label, and beyond. Fifty years ago, the…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Digital Download, Digital Streaming, Vinyl

Genres:

Blues, Funk, Gospel, R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, The Staple Singers

A Long Walk: New Box Set Collects Stax’s 1968 Singles, Chronicling Tumultuous Year For The Label

September 5, 2018 by Randy Fairman | 4 Comments

There have been several reissues this year celebrating the 50th anniversary of individual projects released in 1968. But Craft Recordings has announced a box set which celebrates an entire year’s worth of material with Stax ’68: A Memphis Story, due on October 19. This 5-CD set contains the A- and B-sides of every single released under the Stax Records banner in 1968, including the company’s sub-labels, for a total of 120 tracks. Some tracks are by soul legends like Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers, William Bell, Booker T. & The M.G.’s and…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Delaney and Bonnie, Eddie Floyd, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, The Staple Singers, Various Artists, William Bell

Ace Spotlight, Part Two: The Detroit Emeralds’ “Westbound Singles” and Northern Soul Rarities

February 26, 2018 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

Welcome to Part Two of our Ace Records Round-Up! If you missed Part One’s spotlight on releases from Clarence Carter and James Carr, just click here! Abe Tilmon, Iry Tilmon, and James Mitchell, a.k.a. The Emeralds, hailed from Little Rock, Arkansas, but once the vocal trio moved to the Motor City in 1967, they rechristened themselves The Detroit Emeralds and signed to Ed Wingate’s waning Ric-Tic label. It proved an auspicious start when their debut single, “Show Time,” made No. 22 on the national Billboard R&B chart, but Ric-Tic’s diminishing fortunes saw…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Betty Everett, Carla Thomas, Johnnie Taylor, Maxine Brown, The Detroit Emeralds, Various Artists

Soul Man: Isaac Hayes Box Set Coming Next Month

August 24, 2017 by Mike Duquette | 6 Comments

Having just announced a John Lee Hooker box set, Craft Recordings shows no sign of slowdown, yesterday announcing The Sprit Of Memphis (1962-1976) a 4CD box set devoted to the legendary Isaac Hayes. It’s impossible to think about the Stax Records sound–or soul music in the ’60s and ’70s, really–without considering Isaac Hayes. He helped shape the soul-pop sound of Memphis as a writer and producer, involved with smash hits and immortal cuts like “Hold On! I’m A Comin’,” “B-A-B-Y” (a recent focus song in the summer sleeper hit Baby Driver), “When Something…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Sam & Dave

A 60th Anniversary Celebration “Stax” Up in 2017

April 28, 2017 by Mike Duquette | 3 Comments

From deep within the heart of Memphis to your stereo, the rich legacy of Stax Records will be honored this year as two label partners join forces to commemorate the label’s 60th anniversary. Rolling Stone reported yesterday a massive campaign to celebrate Stax artists and albums across physical and digital formats. Notably, this initiative will be carried out by both owners of the Stax catalogue: Rhino/Warner Music Group, which controls much of the label’s Atlantic-distributed output from 1957 to 1968, and Concord Bicycle Music, handler of the Stax masters released from 1968…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Box Sets, CD, Vinyl

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Albert King, Booker T. and the MG's, Carla Thomas, Isaac Hayes, Johnnie Taylor, Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, The Dramatics, The Staple Singers, William Bell

Got To Be Real: SoulMusic Reissues Cheryl Lynn, Labelle and Johnnie Taylor

October 17, 2014 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

With a trio of recent releases from Labelle, Cheryl Lynn and Johnnie Taylor, Cherry Red’s SoulMusic Records imprint turns its attention once again to bona fide R&B royalty. When Patti LaBelle and the Bluebelles transformed into Labelle, the change was more than merely cosmetic. The quartet was reduced to a threesome when Cindy Birdsong headed to Hitsville USA to replace Florence Ballard in The Supremes. Moreover, under the direction of British manager, producer and songwriter Vicki Wickham, the girls ditched their traditional repertoire to pursue a gutsy new direction. Their first album…

Categories:

News

Formats:

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

Cheryl Lynn, Johnnie Taylor

Big Break Goes Disco with KC and the Sunshine Band, George McCrae, Johnnie Taylor

January 16, 2013 by Joe Marchese | No Comments

The Temptations had sunshine on a rainy day, John Denver had it on his shoulders, and the O’Jays took their cue from an old standard to address a loved one as “my sunshine.” But Harry Wayne Casey and Richard Finch, forming Miami’s KC and the Sunshine Band, had sunshine both in the band name and in the joyful, exultant brand of music they played. Big Break Records has recently reissued one title recorded by those disco titans, one title produced by them, and one with another connection to the genre. All three of…

Categories:

News, Reviews

Formats:

Genres:

R&B/Soul

Tags:

George McCrae, Johnnie Taylor, KC and the Sunshine Band