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 Taylor 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 Taylor's recordings for Selector Sound, a label owned and operated by Taylor and Whisenhunt, and includes 13 original recordings that have been frequently bootlegged by soul aficionados since they went out of print in the late '70s.