Today in our History – September 28 1828, Koko Taylor (born Cora Anna Walton, was born.
GM – LIF – Today’s American champion 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.
Today in our History – September 28 1828, Koko Taylor?(born?Cora Anna Walton, was born.
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", 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 sounds like you always wanted those women with Big in front of their names to sound—powerful, even rough, without ever altogether abandoning her rather feminine register."
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.
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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 is now 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.
Taylor influenced?Bonnie Raitt,?Shemekia Copeland,?Janis Joplin,?Shannon Curfman, and?Susan Tedeschi.
In her later years, she performed over 70 concerts a year and resided just south of Chicago, in?Country Club Hills, Illinois.
In 2008, the?Internal Revenue Service?said that Taylor owed $400,000 in unpaid taxes, penalties and interest, for the years 1998, 2000 and 2001. In those years combined, her adjusted gross income was $949,000.
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.
On June 25, 2019,?The New York Times Magazine?listed Koko Taylor among hundreds of artists whose material was reportedly destroyed in the?2008 Universal fire. Research more about this great American Champion and share it with your babies. Make It A Champion Day!
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