B. E. Taylor
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William Edward "B. E." Taylor (March 18, 1951 – August 7, 2016) was the lead singer of the pop rock band B. E. Taylor Group and a solo artist. The group's 1983 single, "
Vitamin L "Vitamin L" is a song by the American pop rock band B.E. Taylor Group. It is the fifth track on the band's second studio album, ''Love Won the Fight'', and also the third single pulled from that album. In a departure of the norm of B. E. Taylor ...
", reached No. 66 on the ''Billboard'' 100 singles chart.


Life and career

Hailing from
Aliquippa, Pennsylvania Aliquippa is a city in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, United States, along the Ohio River. The population was 9,238 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. It is located northwest of Pittsburgh and is part of the Pittsburgh metropolitan ar ...
, he was the eldest of three sons of Bill and Betty Taylor. Born William Edward, he was called 'Billy Eddie' by his mother, which he eventually shortened to B. E.Tri-state area loses music legend B.E. Taylor
WTOV 9. August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
While in high school, he formed B.E. Taylor and The Establishment. In the 1970s he fronted a number of bands and performed at clubs and venues in the Tri-state of Pennsylvania; Ohio and West Virginia. For a short time in the mid 1970s he paired with Donnie Iris as Iris/Taylor, between Donnie's time with the Jaggerz; Wild Cherry and Donnie Iris and the Cruisers. Recordings exist of the duos work yet have never been released. Donnie produced Taylor's first MCA album in 1981 titled INNERMISSION. Bill also toured with the band Q who had a national hit "Dancin' Man" in 1977 on Epic. The actual lead vocalist on the recording didn't want to tour. Taylor also replaced the lead singer, Ronnie Lee Cunningham of Ohio based band THE LAW on tour, who scored a regional hit titled "Wake Up" in 1975. In 1977, after John Palumbo took a one album hiatus from progressive rock band CRACK THE SKY, B.E. Taylor recorded the lead vocals on five of the tracks for the SAFETY IN NUMBERS album. After a review of the contract with his entertainment lawyer, he was advised not to do the deal and another vocalist, Gary Lee Chappelle was hired. The Taylor tracks do exist in the archives. In the early 1980s, Taylor joined with three former members of the
progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog) is a broad genre of rock music that primarily developed in the United Kingdom through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early-to-mid-1970s. Initially termed " progressive pop", the ...
band
Crack the Sky Crack the Sky is an American progressive rock band formed in Weirton, West Virginia, in the early 1970s. In 1975, ''Rolling Stone'' declared their first album the "debut album of the year", and in 1978, ''Rolling Stone Record Guide'' compared t ...
- Rick Witkowski (guitar), Joe Macre (bass), and Joey D'Amico (drums) - along with keyboardist Nat Kerr to form the B.E. Taylor Group. The group generated some noise during the first half of the 1980s, particularly in 1984, when they scored MTV video rotation and a ''
Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...
'' regional No. 1 hit with the song "
Vitamin L "Vitamin L" is a song by the American pop rock band B.E. Taylor Group. It is the fifth track on the band's second studio album, ''Love Won the Fight'', and also the third single pulled from that album. In a departure of the norm of B. E. Taylor ...
." "Love Won the Fight" and "Beat Away" were also released as singles and fared well from Wheeling to Cleveland and, of course, Pittsburgh. From INNERMISSION, the track "Never Hold Back" reached #47 on the Radio and Records Mainstream Rock chart. The third major label album was released through CBS Associated/Epic. A self produced EP had been released regionally in 1985 featuring Karen; Dangerous Rhythm and Reggae Rock and Roll. "Karen" was a regional smash and Epic forced the band to issue it as first single from OUR WORLD in 1986. Unfortunately, the stations which had embraced the song a year earlier could only offer token play and reports in '86. Karen only managed to reach #97 on the Billboard Top 100. A second single, "Reggae Rock and Roll", placed inside the Top 100 in Cashbox and Bubbled Under at Billboard but the national breakthrough didn't materialize. The band had hoped Epic would release the title track or any one of several other candidates as singles but that didn't happen. A 12 inch of Dangerous Rhythm from the 1985 EP was serviced to clubs and Dance stations and did garner air play in Germany but it was too little too late. In 1987 an executive at Epic suggested the band record a Dan Hartman composition with lyrics and themes contrary to Taylor's Christian values. Bill changed the lyrics and the band recorded a demo which was sent to the executive who did not receive it well. On July 4th, 1987, after playing in front of over ten thousand people at Pittsburgh's The Point for the holiday, the band received the news they had been dropped from the label. Songs which had been demoed for OUR WORLD and an anticipated follow up album, would make it on the 1997 TRY LOVE album. Those songs included the title track; Without Love; My Heart Remembers; Loving and You've Got to Work It Out among others. Two new recordings, This Time and Love You All Over Again made it into the Top 30 at Adult Contemporary Radio Gavin chart with the latter being played on the nationally syndicated Delilah Love Song Show. Taylor moved to
Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...
in the mid-1980s. In 1991, Taylor, a dedicated Christian, contributed a reworking of “Silent Night” to a local radio station’s Christmas compilation, launching his second career as a holiday performer. B.E. and Rick Witkowski would regularly tour with Contemporary Christian singer Kathy Troccolli between 1994 and 1997 with one of the highlights performing for The Pope and over 70,000 people in Washington D.C. B.E. would lend his voice to the Rick Witkowski produced jingles and bumpers for Old Navy and Nick at Night/ Nickelodeon TV network and shows. Taylor went on to record five solo albums and developed a following in the
adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...
market with his annual Christmas tours. He had also performed for many popular television programs in the 1990s, including the award-winning '' LightMusic'', for which he was the music director,
Nickelodeon Nickelodeon (nicknamed Nick) is an American pay television channel and the flagship property of the Nickelodeon Group, a sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on April 1, 1979, as the first ca ...
, and its night-time programming block, ''
Nick At Nite Nick at Nite (stylized as nick@nite since 2009) is an American nighttime programming block on Nickelodeon. List of programs broadcast by Nick at Nite, The block's programming broadcasts from prime time to Late-night television, late night, with ...
''. In 2008, Taylor was awarded the
Duquesne University Duquesne University of the Holy Spirit ( ; also known as Duquesne University or Duquesne) is a Private university, private Catholic higher education, Catholic research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded by members of ...
Lifetime Achievement Award. On September 10, 2021 B.E. Taylor was inducted into the Wheeling Hall of Fame in a ceremony, celebration and dinner at the WesBanco Arena in Wheeling, WV.


Later years and death

In March 2007, Taylor was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. During the years of treatment, he released the album ''B. E. Taylor Christmas 3'' and a concert DVD, completed eight Christmas tours, and performed Valentines Day and summer concerts, as well. He died on August 7, 2016, aged 65 from complications of the tumor.Pittsburgh musician B.E. Taylor dies
WTAE. August 8, 2016. Retrieved August 8, 2016.
He was survived by his wife Veronica (
née The birth name is the name of the person given upon their birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name or to the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a births registe ...
DeBlasis) Taylor and two children, B.C. and Tahnee.


Discography


With B. E. Taylor Group


Albums

*''
Innermission ''Innermission'' was the first major label release for the B.E. Taylor Group, released in 1982 on MCA Records (as MCA-5335). Track listing #"Never Hold Back" - 5:03 #"Stand Up for Love" - 3:22 #"I Like the Way I Feel" - 4:32 #"B ...
'' (1982) *''
Love Won the Fight ''Love Won the Fight'' was the second album by pop rock band B.E. Taylor Group. It was released on New Year's Day In the Gregorian calendar, New Year's Day is the first day of the calendar year, January 1, 1 January. Most solar calendars, s ...
'' (1983) *''Life Goes On EP'' (1984) *''Our World'' (1986)


Singles

*"Never Hold Back" (1982) - #54 ''Billboard'' Mainstream Rock Tracks *"Love Won the Fight" (1983) *"Just A Beat Away" (1983) *"
Vitamin L "Vitamin L" is a song by the American pop rock band B.E. Taylor Group. It is the fifth track on the band's second studio album, ''Love Won the Fight'', and also the third single pulled from that album. In a departure of the norm of B. E. Taylor ...
" (1984) - #66 ''Billboard'' Hot 100 *"Dangerous Rhythm" (1986) *"Reggae Rock & Roll" (1986) *"Karen" (1986) - #94 Billboard Hot 100


As a solo artist


Albums

*'' B. E. Taylor Christmas'' (
1994 The year 1994 was designated as the " International Year of the Family" and the "International Year of Sport and the Olympic Ideal" by the United Nations. In the Line Islands and Phoenix Islands of Kiribati, 1994 had only 364 days, omitti ...
) *'' Try Love'' (
1997 Events January * January 1 – The Emergency Alert System is introduced in the United States. * January 11 – Turkey threatens Cyprus on account of a deal to buy Russian S-300 missiles, prompting the Cypriot Missile Crisis. * January 1 ...
) *''
B. E. Taylor Christmas 2 ''B. E. Taylor Christmas 2'' is the third album by solo artist B. E. Taylor. It was released in 2002, and is the continuation of B.E.'s first album, B. E. Taylor Christmas. The album features 10 renditions of popular Christmas songs and 3 orig ...
'' (
2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
) *''One Nation Under God'' (
2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...
) *'' Love Never Fails'' (
2006 2006 was designated as the International Year of Deserts and Desertification. Events January * January 1– 4 – Russia temporarily cuts shipment of natural gas to Ukraine during a price dispute. * January 12 – A stampede during t ...
) *''B. E. Taylor Christmas 3'' (
2012 2012 was designated as: *International Year of Cooperatives *International Year of Sustainable Energy for All Events January *January 4 – The Cicada 3301 internet hunt begins. * January 12 – Peaceful protests begin in the R ...
)


Singles

* "This Time" (1997) - #29 Gavin Adult Contemporary * "Love You All Over Again" (1997) - #28 Gavin Adult Contemporary * "Let There Be Peace On Earth" (
2002 The effects of the September 11 attacks of the previous year had a significant impact on the affairs of 2002. The war on terror was a major political focus. Without settled international law, several nations engaged in anti-terror operation ...
)


References


External links


Official B. E Taylor website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taylor, B. E. 1951 births 2016 deaths American performers of Christian music Deaths from brain cancer in West Virginia People from Aliquippa, Pennsylvania Singers from West Virginia