Gloria Ann Taylor
was a powerful R&B vocalist whose talent was significantly greater than her commercial success would indicate. During her professional career in the '60s and '70s,
Taylor
's career was guided by songwriter, arranger, and producer
Walter Whisenhunt
(who was also her husband at the time), and he was uniquely talented and helped
make a handful of singles that would later become the stuff of legend among soul and disco collectors (such as "Deep Inside You," "Love Is a Hurtin' Thing," and a striking cover of
Dolly Parton
's "Jolene"). But
Whisenhunt
preferred to release her material through his own independent labels rather than through established labels (despite brief alliances with
Columbia
and
Mercury
), which prevented them from finding the larger audience they deserved.
Love Is a Hurtin' Thing
marks the first authorized reissue of
's recordings for
Selector Sound
, a label owned and operated by
, and includes 13 original recordings that have been frequently bootlegged by soul aficionados since they went out of print in the late '70s. ~ Mark Deming