‘Jody’s Got Your Girl And Gone’: Johnnie Taylor & Stax, Flying High In 1971

Udiscovermusic ^ | February 20, 2026 | Paul Sexton

[nickcarraway]

The soul man from Crawfordsville, Arkansas rang up his 14th soul chart entry, from an impressive total of 43.

Early in 1971, Johnnie Taylor was in the middle of his heyday at Stax Records, flying as high as the label itself. On February 20 that year, one Stax hit replaced another at the top of the Billboard R&B list. Johnnie achieved his second No. 1 with “Jody’s Got Your Girl And Gone” and, in the process, replaced Rufus Thomas’ “Do The Push and Pull” at the peak.

Taylor had topped the R&B survey in 1968 with the Top 5 US pop chart crossover “Who’s Making Love.” His subsequent run of soul hits on Stax never quite reached such a big pop audience again, but “Jody,” like four other singles he released after that smash, did make the Top 30 on the Hot 100. The song was written by Johnnie’s record producer Don Davis with Kent Barker and Cam Wilson, and became part of the One Step Beyond album that charted in March, reaching No.6 R&B.

“Jody” featured guitar fills by Davis himself along with the fabled Stax house band. In post-production, Temptation-esque backing vocals were added by none other than Taylor’s fellow Stax stars the Dramatics, whose finest hour would arrive a year later with their own soul No.1, “In The Rain.”

The often-undervalued Taylor, from Crawfordsville, Arkansas, rang up his 14th soul chart entry with “Jody,” from an impressive total of 43 spread over 34 years. His success came in three distinct phases, of which the Stax era was the first, and included a third R&B bestseller with 1973’s “I Believe In You (You Believe In Me).”

The singer moved on to another strong period at Columbia, most of all with the R&B and pop No.1 “Disco Lady,” and then finished with a distinguished run of releases for the independent southern soul label Malaco. Taylor was only 62 when he died of a heart attack in 2000. He is fondly remembered by longtime Stax mainstay and executive Deanie Parker, in the uDiscover Music Stax Legends audio series.

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TOPICS: Music/Entertainment
KEYWORDS: johnnietaylor; soul; stax

[lee martell]

It’s a fine point, but to many the finest moment or biggest hit of The Dramatics would be “Whatcha See Is Whatcha Get”
from 1971. It was very popular in Detroit, where I lived back then. Even my parents like it.

[Equine1952]

I was wondering what happened to Jody. I’m pretty sure he was still left. Am I right?

[Terry L Smith]

Ah yes! All the married GIs at U-Tapao RTNAF, home of the 307th bomb wing, flying those lovely B-52s day in day out....they all chatted about that song, my friend!
All in those days, the bomber squadrons were assigned TDY180s, and at day 180,:you get credit for overseas assignment and became a base home boy. As a rule, all bomber squadrons personnel were on aircraft en route home...on day 179!! So, in my 2 years and 8 months at the great U.T.,I saw some of the guys for a second time.

[SunkenCiv]

Johnnie Taylor - Jody's Got Your Girl And Gone (Official Visualizer) | 3:03
Stax Records | 160K subscribers | 322,739 views | April 23, 2021

[RitchieAprile]

We all sang songs about Jody back in BCT.

[Robert A Cook PE]

You caught that too, right? You’re left!

[Equine1952]

My favorite part of basic was marching and the cadence songs. Jody was there along with others. We once marched with the drum and stumble company ( Drum and Bugle) to some. They were playing Ingodadevida, my spelling sucks, but it was great marching music.