The first single ever certified platinum by the RIAA was not by Elvis, the Beatles, or Michael Jackson. It was Disco Lady, the 1976 hit by Johnnie Taylor, a gospel-trained soul singer from Crawfordsville, Arkansas. This deep dive explores how Taylor shapeshifted through gospel, rhythm and blues, Southern soul, and disco while surviving the deaths of his mentors and the collapse of the labels he recorded for.

We follow him from the Highway QCs and replacing Sam Cooke in the Soul Stirrers in 1957 to signing with Cooke’s SAR Records, the label’s collapse after Cooke’s 1964 death, and his arrival at Stax in 1966. We explain how a distribution contract cost Stax its master recordings after Otis Redding died, and how hits like Who’s Making Love helped keep the company afloat. The story continues through Columbia, the 1984 signing with Malaco Records after the founders heard him sing at ZZ Hill’s funeral, and the estate disputes that followed his death in 2000.

• Why he earned the nickname the Philosopher of Soul during his Memphis years
• How producer Don Davis built Disco Lady to bridge R&B grooves and the dance floor
• Working as a Dallas radio DJ billed as The Wailer in the 1980s
• Good Love reaching number one on the Billboard blues chart as Malaco’s best seller
• Nine heirs, a legal documentary, and the difficulty of auditing major-label royalties