ArtistInfo

Gloria Taylor

voc, 1944-2017 US
Singer of R&B/Soul
A.k.a. Gloria Ann Taylor Gloria Whisenhunt

Gloria Ann Taylor (born 13th September 1944, Dehue, West Virginia, U.S.A. - died 8th December 2017, South Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A. ) was an American R&B and soul singer. Gloria began singing in clubs in the early 1960s and was discovered by Walter Whisenhunt, who had worked as a promoter and production manager with James Brown. Whisenhunt became her manager and record producer, and the pair soon married. Her first records (as Gloria Taylor) were issued on the King Soul label in Detroit, before she had her first and biggest chart success with "You Got to Pay the Price", released on Shelby Singleton's Silver Fox label. The record reached #9 on the Billboard R&B chart and #49 on the pop chart in late 1969, and was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Female R&B Vocal Performance, won that year by Aretha Franklin. Taylor and Whisenhunt moved to California, and recorded for Columbia Records before Whisenhunt started his own label, Selector Sound. By 1977 Taylor's career had stalled, and the couple's marriage failed. Taylor returned to Toledo to raise her children, found other work, and sang only in her church, never recording or performing professionally again. In 2015, after several years of negotiations, Ubiquity / Luv N' Haight reissued many of her recordings and Taylor announced her desire to return to performing.