J.T. Taylor (born August 16, 1953) – If You Feel Like Dancin' (1979)

One of Kool & the Gang's first songs to feature J.T.'s golden vocals was this dancefloor masterpiece, co-written by Ronald Bell and produced by Deodato.

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J.T. Taylor was Kool & the Gang’s lead singer for nine years, from 1979-88. His tenure coincided with the group’s most successful period, when they had six #1 R&B hits and saw ten of their songs reach the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100, including “Celebration” which topped both charts.

Born in Laurens, South Carolina, James “J.T.” Warren Taylor was raised in Hackensack, New Jersey. He joined his first band at age 13, and became a teacher after college. On the side he worked as a nightclub singer, and in 1978 was a member of the group Full Force before successfully auditioning to join Kool & the Gang as their lead singer.

See our previous post on drummer George Brown for more on the group’s history.

Before Taylor’s arrival, Kool & the Gang’s previous two LP’s had been relatively unsuccessful. The Force (1977) peaked at #33 on the R&B albums chart, and Everybody’s Dancin’ (1978) failed to chart at all.

Throughout their career they had not recorded many ballads. Although the group’s members were world class musicians, no one had been trained as a singer. But with Taylor on board, their repertoire broadened and the hits began to flow again.

The first album Taylor appeared on was Ladies Night (1979), which was also the first of four Kool & the Gang LP’s to be produced or co-produced by Brazilian keyboardist and producer Eumir Deodato. On their strength of its mega-hit title track, which reached #1 R&B and #8 on the Hot 100, the album went platinum.

The B-side to “Ladies Night” was the dancefloor masterpiece “If You Feel Like Dancin’,” which showcased Taylor’s smooth vocals. It was co-written by Ronald Bell (aka Khalis Bayyan) along with the rest of the group, who generally always received shared songwriting credit on their songs.

For their 1981 album Something Special, which was their third straight album to go platinum, Taylor co-wrote the smash hit “Get Down On It” with Ronald Bell and the rest of the group. They also all collaborated on the stellar opening cut “Steppin’ Out.”

Later that same year, Kool & the Gang memorably performed “Steppin’ Out” on the UK television show Top Of The Pops.

Happy 70th Birthday to the great J.T. Taylor!

#soul #funk #disco #KoolAndTheGang #EumirDeodato #JTTaylor