Koko Taylor

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. 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.

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. Taylor was survived by her daughter, two grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.

Legacy In 2023, Taylor's 1960s performance of "Wang Dang Doodle" 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.

Awards Grammy Award for Best Traditional Blues Album, 1985 Howlin' Wolf Award, 1996 Blues Hall of Fame, inducted 1997 Blues Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award, 1999 NEA National Heritage Fellowship, 2004 Blues Music Award (formerly the W. C. Handy Award), 32 nominations with 29 wins in the following categories:

Discography "Love You Like a Woman", November 30, 1968 (Charly Records) Koko Taylor, 1969 (MCA/Chess Records) Basic Soul, 1972 (Chess) South Side Lady, 1973 (Black & Blue Records) I Got What It Takes, 1975 (Alligator Records) Southside Baby, 1975 (Black & Blue) The Earthshaker, 1978 (Alligator) From the Heart of a Woman, 1981 (Alligator) Queen of the Blues, 1985 (Alligator) Live from Chicago: An Audience with the Queen, 1987 (Alligator) Jump for Joy, 1990 (Alligator) Wang Dang Doodle, 1991 (Huub Records) Force of Nature, 1993 (Alligator) Royal Blue, 2000 (Alligator) Old School, 2007 (Alligator)