R. Dean Taylor (May 11, 1939 – January 7, 2022) was a Canadian musician, most notable as a singer, songwriter, and record producer for Motown during the 1960s and 1970s. He was an unlikely pop star of the post-Woodstock era. Clean-shaven and pipe-smoking, with short, clipped hair and a preference for cardigans and safari jackets, he looked more advertising executive than hip musician. But Canada’s R. Dean Taylor was always determined to make it in the entertainment world.
Richard Dean Taylor was born in Toronto, Ontario. He began his singing career at age 12, performing at local country showcases before embracing rock & roll. Even though his father got him a non-creative job at Toronto advertising agency Vickers and Benson, Taylor’s heart was in making records. In 1960, he signed to the Toronto-based Audiomaster label to cut his rockabilly-flavored debut single, "At the High School Dance," supported by appearances on the CBC as well as a brief tour of the northeastern U.S. Taylor relocated to New York City in 1962, signing to the Amy/Mala label to cut a pair of singles, "I'll Remember" and the novelty effort "We Fell in Love as We Tangoed." Neither attracted much notice, and the following year a friend in the Detroit area recommended he audition for Berry Gordy's up-and-coming Motown Records.
Taylor was hired by, Motown in 1964 as a songwriter and recording artist for the subsidiary V.I.P. label. Taylor's scheduled first single (March 1964) for V.I.P. was the topical satire "My Ladybug (Stay Away From That Beatle)", but it was deemed too weak for release and was never issued. It was not until November 1965 that Taylor's debut V.I.P. single, "Let's Go Somewhere", was issued. It was written by Taylor in conjunction with Brian Holland, and produced by the team of Holland and Lamont Dozier, who had already produced five No. 1 scoring songs for The Supremes. However, the song was only a regional success in several U.S. cities and Toronto.
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| Holland, Dozier, Taylor & Gooch |
Taylor's next single (1967's "There's A Ghost In My House") was written by the team of Holland–Dozier–Holland along with Taylor, and again produced by Brian Holland and Lamont Dozier. It was also a commercial disappointment in the US – but it was a No. 3 hit in the UK Singles Chart in 1974. Taylor was also beginning to become a songwriter for other acts, as "I'll Turn to Stone" by the Four Tops, and "All I Need" by The Temptations were both charting US singles in 1967, co-composed by him. In 1968, Taylor's self-produced single "Gotta See Jane", co-written with Brian Holland, became a Top 20 hit in the UK.
After Holland, Dozier and Holland left Motown, more success for Taylor came as a member of the Motown writing and production team known as "The Clan", together with Frank Wilson, Pam Sawyer and Deke Richards. This production group was briefly the prime creator of material for Diana Ross & the Supremes after the Holland-Dozier-Holland team left Motown. Among Taylor's successful co-compositions and co-productions during 1968 and 1969 as a member of The Clan were Diana Ross & the Supremes' No. 1 US hit "Love Child" and their Top 10 follow-up hit "I'm Livin' In Shame".
Taylor resumed his recording career in 1970, becoming one of the first artists assigned to Motown's new subsidiary Rare Earth, which was dedicated to white artists. In that year his first Rare Earth single, "Indiana Wants Me", became a No. 2 hit in his native Canada and No. 1 in Cash Box magazine in the US, the first Motown record by a white performer to reach that position. The song peaked at No. 5 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and at No. 2 in the UK. Later it was featured in the opening minutes of the 1980 American movie The Ninth Configuration.
"Gotta See Jane" was also reissued in 1971, and became a success in Canada at number 12. His 1972 single "Taos New Mexico" did not do well on the Canadian charts, reaching number 48. He established his own record company, Jane Records, in 1973. He built a recording studio at his home in Los Angeles, and worked on an unpublished memoir of his time at Motown. He continued recording for Rare Earth, and working as a writer-producer for other artists until Rare Earth was ended in 1976. Though he never again scored the charts as he had done with "Indiana Wants Me", his releases did moderately well, especially in Canada. As a Canadian citizen, he could be played on CKLW and other Canadian radio stations and counted towards the stations' Canadian content quotas.
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After a 1981 comeback attempt, "Let's Talk It Over," fizzled, Taylor retired from performing for over a decade, resurfacing in the late '90s as the headliner at several overseas Northern soul showcases. “Most of my work was bigger in England,” he said in a 2019 interview. “Thank God for the English people who embraced me.”
Taylor died at home on January 7, 2022, at the age of 82. He had been ill since contracting COVID-19 the previous year, spending the last year of his life at home with hospice treatment.. At the time of his death he had been married for 52 years to his wife Janee.
(Edited
from Wikipedia, AllMusic, The Globe & Mail & The Telegraph)