R. DEAN TAYLOR - 'GOTTA SEE JANE'

Classic pop singles of all time (an occasional series)  . . . . 

R Dean Taylor's 'Gotta See Jane' was a pop classic story telling single that curiously didn't really hit in the States but Britain made it a minor hit especially after his earlier club hit was promoted here and he had a no.1 with 'There's a Ghost In Our House' where dance clubs picked up on the record and Motown UK released it as a single, and it went to the top of the charts in England and throughout Europe. We paid attention then when 'Jane' came out and we listened to this a lot at our local youth club when it came out. In 1970, Dean recorded "Indiana Wants Me" which he always felt would be a hit record but he had to work really hard to break it.  Two radio stations broke the record in the States eventually after much pushing. Breaking again in Britain we didn't really understand it at all - who WAS Indiana!?!"Indiana Wants Me" became a million-seller and climbed to #1 on the US charts, making R. Dean Taylor the first white artist in the history of Motown to do so.

over at Plain & Fancy they have a nice link to this and a great piece of biography noting it was co-written by Holland of Holland/Dozier/Holland fame from all the soul classics but this was a psychedelic story song about driving and presumably crashing (sic - brakes squealing from the vert start) on the way in the wet stormy weather to see his girlfriend, a kind of updated version of all those 'Terry' by Twinkle type disaster songs . . . . . . . . 



The Rockasteria - R.Dean Taylor