February 03, 2009 Earworm

Children, I got it bad for R. Dean Taylor lately. It's moved beyond
my love it longtime worship of "There's A Ghost In My House" and I've
found myself listening to a homemade cd that includes all the
different mixes of "Gotta See Jane" - there were four - and "Indiana
Wants Me" - only two repeatedly in the car as though the gas pedal
won't work without it. I'm even listening to the deemed to weak for
release first Motown produced single, "My Ladybug (Stay Away From That
Beatle)" from 1964.

Motown's faith in Taylor may not seem logical on the surface, but what
allowed him to linger for six hit-less years in this hallowed halls
has recently been brought to light ever so slowly: he worked,
uncredited, with Holland - Dozier - Holland on many of the hits we all
know as classic H-D-H. Merely mentioned as a rumor when his name
finally came up in Vol. 4 of The Complete Motown Singles, his song
doctoring finally became noted as fact in Vol. 7 which contains all
the singles released in 1967 and the first hits to include his name
in the writing credits - "All I Need" by The Temptations and The Four
Tops' "I'll Turn To Stone" and the aforementioned "There's A Ghost In
My House" which anyone with an ear can recognize as a Four Tops record
done by a very talented garage band.

Between the ill-fated Beatles novelty and the pay-off of "Indiana
Wants Me", Taylor released "Let's Go Somewhere" in '65 which went
nowhere except in Canada where it went top 40, "Ghost..." which
flopped in '67, and then, following the departure of H-D-H in 1968,
"Gotta See Jane", which he produced on his own. Rain, tires
screeching, a filtered vocal, a discreet harpsichord, and a string
arrangement that makes me weak, all should have added up to a hit but
it failed everywhere but the UK, where it went top 20. Berry Gordy,
sure that he had a US smash on his hands, remixed the single for a
second pressing but still it failed to take off. Songwriting duties
with what became known as "The Clan" kept Taylor off the release
schedule for all of 1969.

"Indian Wants Me" became a pop phenomenon when radio listeners began
freaking out over the sirens that opened the song and it became a top
five hit because it is an excellent record. Again, strings pay a
major part in its charm but this time, they are more discreet.
Lyrically, it's a perfect follow up to "Somewhere They Can't Find Me"
if you choose to end that story in a certain way, and it's a perfect
follow up or prequel to "Gotta See Jane", depending on how you let
either story play out. Always looking for the happy ending, I prefer
Jane as a sequel and apparently Motown did, too.

Having pulled "Gotta See Jane" out of the vaults in 1969 to launch the
Rare Earth label in Canada, it was remixed again and stereo promo
singles were sent out but, again, it failed to catch on. After the US
follow up to "Indiana Wants Me", "Ain't It A Sad Thing", failed to
live up to its predecessors success, "Gotta See Jane" was pulled out
again and the Canadian stereo version was mixed back down to mono and
re-released in Canada where it made the top twenty, and in the US,
where it actually peaked lower than "Ain't It A Sad Thing" and set the
pattern for ever diminishing commercial returns.