Following the death of his friend and mentor Sam Cooke, Johnnie Taylor decided to flip a coin to see which record company he’d approach--Stax or Motown. Stax won the toss, but Taylor ended up having the best of both worlds when the Memphis company enlisted Detroit producer Don Davis to add some Motown-like sheen to the singer’s Arkansas-hewn grit. This inspired marriage of Northern and Southern styles yielded hit after hit, four of which--the socially conscious “I Am Somebody” (to which the Dramatics contribute their trademark harmonies), the haunting “I Don't Wanna Lose you,” the hard-socking “Jody’s Got Your Girl and Gone” (Taylor’s second soul chart-topper), and a galvanizing remake of Jimmy Hughes’s “Steal Away”--are contained on this classic disc.

with Barry Beckett, Rudy Robinson, Marvell Thomas, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, Al Jackson, Jr., Eddie Hinton, Jimmy Johnson, David Hood, Roger Hawkins, The Memphis Horns