Born and raised on a Memphis farm, young Cora Walton was urged to sing gospel by her folks but found the blues she heard on B.B. King's local radio show too powerful to resist. Big Mama Thornton and Bessie Smith were influential to her developing singing style, but so were Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf.

Along with her future husband, Robert "Pops" Taylor, she moved to the Windy City at age 18 and found work cleaning houses in the suburbs. Meanwhile, she and Pops would make the South side scene, checking out her idols in person. Naturally, Taylor grabbed any chance to sit in that came her way.

In 1962, Willie Dixon caught Taylor's act and took over as her mentor. He produced her 1963 debut 45 for USA, "Honky Tonky," then got her signed to Chess. There she enjoyed one of the last legitimate Chicago blues hits with her rousing rendition of the Dixon-penned party classic "Wang Dang Doodle." It went all the way to number four on Billboard's R&B charts in 1966. Dixon's role as writer/producer was a prominent one on Taylor's eponymous Chess debut LP, but none of her encores enjoyed the same success level as "Wang Dang Doodle" (still her enduring signature song).

After a dry spell, Taylor joined Bruce Iglauer's Alligator Records in 1975 (she was the fledgling firm's first female artist). Her Grammy-nominated Alligator album debut, I Got What It Takes, catapulted Koko Taylor back into the blues limelight, and six more sets for the label have kept her there. She's got a skin-tight band called the Blues Machine, a closet full of Handy Awards, a 1984 Grammy, and made a memorable singing cameo in director David Lynch's bizarre film Wild at Heart.

Koko Taylor's raspy growl is a beloved Chicago fixture, just like deep-dish pizza and Michael Jordan. A recent attempt to market a nightclub under her name didn't pan out for long, but that setback was momentary; the queen's regal reign continues.