The Highway Q.C.'s

Not only among the top gospel groups of the postwar era, the Highway Q.C.'s were also the launching pad for such major secular pop stars as <a href="spotify:artist:1zJBFCev9UwOMcrZsLi2od">Lou Rawls</a>, <a href="spotify:artist:4OGuNAnRFWZOgOA2d51taz">Johnnie Taylor</a>, and the immortal <a href="spotify:artist:6hnWRPzGGKiapVX1UCdEAC">Sam Cooke</a>. The group was formed in 1945 at Chicago's Highway Baptist Church by a number of teenagers that included Cooke, Creadell Copeland, and two pairs of brothers, Marvin & Charles Jones and <a href="spotify:artist:4WB32sqN839h5BEYYXTeNE">Curtis</a> & Lee Richardson. Cooke exited in 1951 to join the ranks of hometown heroes <a href="spotify:artist:1bZKspL8h396R1WihOiPb5">the Soul Stirrers</a>; his replacement was <a href="spotify:artist:7vuXCITiRilCLfuySIgZKM">Rawls</a>, himself an alumnus of another young Windy City group, the Holy Wonders. In time, all of the Wonders' other members -- <a href="spotify:artist:7fzt6lqqysC7sByOaAdL1w">Spencer Taylor</a>, James Walker, and <a href="spotify:artist:2eRZ1eNEjntSadmF2rLDPG">Chris Flowers</a> among them -- would join the Highway Q.C.'s as well. <a href="spotify:artist:7vuXCITiRilCLfuySIgZKM">Rawls</a> remained for just two years, leaving at that time to join the Los Angeles-based <a href="spotify:artist:0vz1CCrLUzJxtutJSSmFhS">Chosen Gospel Singers</a>; his substitute was <a href="spotify:artist:4OGuNAnRFWZOgOA2d51taz">Johnnie Taylor</a>, previously of the Kansas City group the Melody Kings. The group made their debut on the <a href="spotify:search:label%3A%22Vee-Jay%22">Vee-Jay</a> label in 1955; in 1956, <a href="spotify:artist:7fzt6lqqysC7sByOaAdL1w">Spencer Taylor</a> joined, and a year later <a href="spotify:artist:4OGuNAnRFWZOgOA2d51taz">Johnnie Taylor</a> (no relation) quit to join <a href="spotify:artist:1bZKspL8h396R1WihOiPb5">the Soul Stirrers</a>, ironically enough filling the gap created by the exit of <a href="spotify:artist:6hnWRPzGGKiapVX1UCdEAC">Sam Cooke</a>. <a href="spotify:artist:7fzt6lqqysC7sByOaAdL1w">Spencer Taylor</a> remained the Highway Q.C.'s leader throughout the decades which followed, continuing to helm the group into the '90s. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi