Gwen Owens - Just Say You're Wanted And Needed

Detroit legend Gwen Owens sings her Northern Soul anthem "Just Say You're wanted And Needed". Along with "You Better Watch Out", this great song was one of two phenomenally popular Northern Soul monsters. Gwen got into singing in church and at school. While at Pershing High School, she appeared in a talent show and Henry Smith, who was an alumni at the school, saw her perform. He was impressed with her and asked if she would be interested in recording. Her first release "Mystery of Love" soon followed. In 1964, with Henry Smith again making the introduction, she hooked up with the owner of Oncore Records and a single, "Mystery Man / Someone To Love" was issued. She then had to wait until 1967 before enjoying her next release, this being the Tony Wilson produced "I Lost A Good Thing". This self-written song, cut in New Haven, became the debut outing on Larry Lick's Velgo label (backed with "I'll Be Crying") and was soon a local hit. She and Velgo tried to build on this success with a follow up single, "Just Say You're Wanted And Needed / Still True To You". However nearly all the copies of this 45, when manufactured, had a pressing fault that prevented them from playing correctly and so they never officially made it into retail shops. The vast majority of copies didn't even get to leave the warehouse, being smashed up to create space for other releases. Next up came the single coupling "Make Him Mine / One Day More". Around the same time (mid 67), Gwen also enjoyed a release on LA based Uptown Records, "Take A Look". In 1969, George McGregor produced some tracks on Gwen and two of these were leased to Josie Records, "Keep On Living / It Ain't Hardly Over". In the early 70's however, Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey signed her up to a production contract. At the time the pair had the idea to start up a 'Motown South' organization and so were negotiating with Motown. Thus in 1972, Gwen found herself as a Motown artist but recording down in Muscle Shoals with Terry Woodford and Clayton Ivey. Then came Casablanca Records and the label released "You Better Watch Out / Everybody Needs Love" in 1973. And so, originally, back in early 1999, this was yet another legendary Northern Soul smash that we filmed for "The Strange World Of Northern Soul". We tracked Gwen down to make this one and only one-time performance especially for us, for our ground breaking Encyclopedia Britannica of Northern Soul, and I am so glad that we did.