R. Dean Taylor (May 11, 1939 – January 7, 2022) – Back Street (1970)

The blue-eyed soul singer/songwriter best known for the Northern soul anthem "There's A Ghost In My House" also wrote this superb socially conscious jam.

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R. Dean Taylor was a Canadian singer/songwriter and producer who recorded and worked for Motown in the 1960s and 70s.

Born in Toronto, Richard Dean Taylor started out as a pianist and singer for local country music groups. After a couple of minor hits, he moved to Detroit. There he was hired by Motown in 1964 as a recording artist and songwriter for the label’s subsidiary V.I.P. Records, also home to blue-eyed soul singer Chris Clark. His own debut single, the socially conscious “Let’s Go Somewhere” b/w “Poor Girl” came out in November, 1965. He co-wrote both songs with Brian Holland, who co-produced the single with Lamont Dozier.

In March, 1967, Motown released Brenda Holloway’s phenomenal “Just Look What You've Done,” co-written by Taylor and legendary Motown songwriter and producer Frank Wilson, who also produced it. The song was later included on her second album, The Artistry of Brenda Holloway (1968). The single hit #21 R&B and peaked at #67 on the Billboard Hot 100.

One of the last songs Holland-Dozier-Holland wrote and produced at Motown was Taylor’s second single, which he co-wrote with all of them. “There’s A Ghost In My House” (b/w “Don't Fool Around”) was originally released in 1967 but did not initially chart. After it became an anthem on the UK’s Northern soul scene in the early seventies, it was re-issued in 1974 and went to #3 on the British singles charts.

Taylor wrote several songs for Rare Earth, and his own debut album I Think, Therefore I Am was issued by Motown’s subsidiary of the same name in 1970. One of its singles was the environmental awareness anthem “Ain’t It A Sad Thing,” which he wrote and produced and co-arranged with David Van De Pitte.

“Little child upon my knee / Holds a picture of a tree / Tears in his eyes say where'd they all go / The tears in mine say I really don't know / Down by the river where the river don't flow / We can't go there no more / The birds don't sing, ain't it a sad thing”

Its powerful lyrics remain all too relevant today as our planet burns due to the ongoing climate crisis. Just this week, wannabe dictator Trump solicited a $1 billion campaign contribution (aka bribe) from Big Oil execs, telling them he would erase all of President Biden’s environmental progress and give them free rein to continue profiting from fossil fuels (if voter suppression, right-wing propaganda, and third party spoilers help him cheat his way back into the White House).

The single’s B-side was the stellar, socially conscious jam “Back Street,” which he wrote and produced. It peaked at #66 on the Billboard Hot 100 in early 1971.

Happy Heavenly 85th Birthday to the great R. Dean Taylor.

Further info:

“The 'Ghost' of Taylor's Past,” by Adam White, West Grand Blog, March 30, 2018.

“Toronto-born singer-songwriter R. Dean Taylor became a surprise Motown star,” obituary, The Globe and Mail, January 21, 2022.

#soul #NorthernSoul #Motown #RDeanTaylor