Koko Taylor

Biography

Koko Taylor (born Cora Ann Walton, September 28, 1928 – June 3, 2009) was an American singer whose style encompassed Chicago blues, electric blues, rhythm and blues, and soul blues. Sometimes called "The Queen of the Blues", she was known for her rough, powerful vocals. Over the course of her career, she was nominated for 11 Grammy Awards, winning 1985's Best Traditional Blues Album for her appearance on Blues Explosion.

Life and career

Born on a farm near Memphis, Tennessee, Taylor was the daughter of a sharecropper. She left Tennessee for Chicago in 1952 with her husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor, a truck driver. In the late 1950s, she began singing in blues clubs in Chicago. She was spotted by Willie Dixon in 1962, and this led to more opportunities for performing and her first recordings. In 1963 she had a single on USA Records, and in 1964 a cut on a Chicago blues collection on Spivey Records, called Chicago Blues. In 1964 Dixon brought Taylor to Checker Records, a subsidiary label of Chess Records, for which she recorded "Wang Dang Doodle×Wang Dang Doodle1990 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 21 tracks1I Got What It Takes3:042What Kind of Man Is This3:023Don't Mess With the Messer2:414Whatever I Am, You Made Me2:245I'm a Little Mixed Up2:386Wang Dang Doodle2:587Blues Heaven2:208(I Got) All You Need2:139Tell Me the Truth2:0310Good Advice2:2611Egg or the Hen2:2612Just Love Me2:4113Fire2:2714Insane Asylum4:1915Separate or Integrate3:0516I Don't Care Who Knows2:1017Love You Like a Woman2:0718Yes, It's Good for You2:4019Twenty-Nine Ways3:1120Nitty Gritty2:4121I Love a Lover Like You2:45", a song written by Dixon and recorded by Howlin' Wolf five years earlier. The record became a hit, reaching number four on the R&B chart and number 58 on the pop chart in 1966, and selling a million copies. She recorded several versions of the song over the years, including a live rendition at the 1967 American Folk Blues Festival, with the harmonica player Little Walter and the guitarist Hound Dog Taylor. Her subsequent recordings, both original songs and covers, did not achieve as much success on the charts.

Taylor became better known by touring in the United States in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and she became accessible to a wider record-buying public when she signed a recording contract with Alligator Records in 1975. She recorded nine albums for Alligator, eight of which were nominated for Grammy awards, and came to dominate ranks of female blues singers, winning twenty-nine W. C. Handy/Blues Music Awards.
She survived a near-fatal car crash in 1989. In the 1990s, she appeared in the films Blues Brothers 2000 and Wild at Heart. She opened a blues club on Division Street in Chicago in 1994, which relocated to Wabash Avenue, in Chicago's South Loop, in 2000 (the club later closed).
In 2003, she appeared as a guest with Taj Mahal in an episode of the television series Arthur. In 2009, she performed with Umphrey's McGee at the band's New Year's Eve concert at the Auditorium Theater, in Chicago.
Bonnie Raitt, Shemekia Copeland, Janis Joplin, Shannon Curfman, and Susan Tedeschi cite Taylor as an influence on their styles.
In her later years, Taylor performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago, in Country Club Hills, Illinois.
Taylor's final performance was at the Blues Music Awards, on May 7, 2009. She suffered complications from surgery for gastrointestinal bleeding on May 19 and died on June 3. Taylor was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Legacy

In 2023, Taylor's 1960s performance of "Wang Dang Doodle×Wang Dang Doodle1990 · Album · CompilationSpotify (search)YouTube Music (search)Tracklist · 21 tracks1I Got What It Takes3:042What Kind of Man Is This3:023Don't Mess With the Messer2:414Whatever I Am, You Made Me2:245I'm a Little Mixed Up2:386Wang Dang Doodle2:587Blues Heaven2:208(I Got) All You Need2:139Tell Me the Truth2:0310Good Advice2:2611Egg or the Hen2:2612Just Love Me2:4113Fire2:2714Insane Asylum4:1915Separate or Integrate3:0516I Don't Care Who Knows2:1017Love You Like a Woman2:0718Yes, It's Good for You2:4019Twenty-Nine Ways3:1120Nitty Gritty2:4121I Love a Lover Like You2:45" was added to the United States National Recording Registry.
A lengthy NPR profile, "The Sounds Of America: 'Wang Dang Doodle'", including singer Bonnie Raitt, actor Dan Aykroyd, and artist Shemekia Copeland aired in May 2023.
A Blues Music Award is given in the 'Koko Taylor Award (Traditional Blues Female)' category.