Bobby Taylor

A San Francisco nightclub launched one of the most exciting bands to come out the Northwest. Tommy Chong and Bobby Taylor formed Four Niggers & a Chink from Little Daddie & the Bachelors, who originated from the Shades, a Calgary/Edmonton based group. Little Daddie & the Bachelor's recorded a couple singles, including "Too Much Monkey Business" out of Vancouver, British Columbia. The offensive name killed the fan base that Little Daddie & the Bachelors had built. It's unclear whether Bobby Taylor was a member of the Bachelors -- Tommy Milton, Donald Mallory, Chong, and Wes Henderson, but he was with the latter group who changed their name weekly around the same theme: Four Colour Fellas and a Chinese Lad...Four N's and a C, before settling on Bobby Taylor & the Vancouvers. The original Vancouvers, in addition to Chong and Taylor, were Wes Henderson (guitar), Robbie King (keyboards), Ted Lewis (drums), and Eddie Patterson (bass). They rebuilt their fan base by doing spirited, rock-ish versions of Motown hits. Jimi Hendrix played with them at one point for a year (prior to his stint with the Isley Brothers), mainly at Seattle's Black and Tan Club, but was fired because his solos were too long and loud. Mary Wilson and Florence Ballard heard the band when they played at Chong and Taylor's after-hour joint, the Elegant Parlor in Vancouver; Berry Gordy was contacted and the group signed with the hot recording company. It turned out to be a horrible mistake, but if they hadn't, would they have ever emerged from the Northwest? Taylor was a veteran when he inked with Motown in 1967, he was born February 18, 1936, making him 31 at the time of the signing. Born in North Carolina, his folks moved to Washington, D.C., where he grew up in a public housing project and sang doo wops...