Chip Taylor

Chip Taylor will always be best known for the songs he's written, but he also had a prolific career as a recording artist, playing a confident and committed blend of country and contemporary folk. He penned three songs that were oft-recorded perennials -- "Wild Thing" (first made a hit by the Troggs), "Angel of the Morning" (Merrilee Rush cut the best-known version), and "Try (Just a Little Bit Harder)" (memorably covered by Janis Joplin). Recording was a sideline for Taylor in the 1970s, cutting LPs for Buddah, Warner Bros., and Columbia, but after returning to music in the 1990s, he became remarkably productive, releasing 26 albums between 1996 and 2025, including 1996's Hit Man, 2003's The Trouble with Humans (one of several sets he recorded with Carrie Rodriguez), 2008's New Songs of Freedom, and 2018's Fix Your Words.