Chip Taylor Passes On

Chip Taylor, the songwriter who wrote both "Wild Thing" by The Troggs and "Angel of the Morning" by  Merrilee Rush, died on March 23, 2026, at the age of 86.

Chip Taylor was born James Wesley Voight on March 21, 1940 in Yonkers, New York. His brothers were actor Jon Voight and geologist Barry Voight. His father, Elmer, was a golfer who had played in the U.S. Open in 1928 and 1929. It was after his parents took him to see My Wild Irish Rose when he was 7 or 8 that he took an interest in music. It was listening late nights to a radio station out of Wheeling, West Virginia that made him a fan of Southern blues and country music. He was still a student at Archbishop Stepinac High School in White Plains, New York when he was writing songs at the Brill Building.

In 1957 his band West Voight and the Town and Country Brothers were signed to King Records. It was during this period that he took the pen name "Chip Taylor," as executives at King Records were worried that DJs might have problems pronouncing "Voight." On the King label, he recorded such songs as "I'm Movin' On" and "I'm Ready to Go Steady," but none of them charted. He later moved to Warner Bros., where his single "Here I Am" actually made the Billboard Hot 100.

While Chip Taylor would see only some success as a performer, he saw considerable success as a songwriter. His song "Wild Thing" was originally recorded by Jordan Christopher and the Wild Ones in 1965, but it would The Troggs' version of the song that would become Chip Taylor's first big hit when it went no. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. His song "Angel in the Morning" was originally recorded by Evie Sands in 1967, but it was the version by Merrilee Rush that went to no. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968. Among other notable songs written by Chip Taylor were "I Can't Let Go" (covered by The Hollies), "Any Way That You Want Me" (recorded by The Troggs), "On My Word" (recorded by Cliff Richard), "Step Out of Your Mind" (recorded by The American Breed), and yet others. His songs were covered by such diverse artists as Lita Ford, The Fleetwoods, The Bobby Fuller Four, Janis Joplin, Willie Nelson, and others.

In the Seventies, Chip Taylor recorded several albums, starting with Gotta Get Back to Cisco as part of orgoni, Martin & Taylor. After a break of many years, he would record several more albums starting with Hit Man in 1996. His last album, The Truth and Other Things, was released last year.  

Even if Chip Taylor had only written "Wild Thing" and "Angel in the Morning," he would have had a huge impact on popular music. As it is, he wrote several other songs that saw some success and also left behind his own oeuvre of singles and albums that maintain a following to this day.