Bobby Taylor interview, 2006
b'Diana Ross and The Supremes had just finished a two-week run at the legendary Cave Supper Club in October 1967, touring on the strength of their #1 hit "The Happening". Florence Ballard and Mary Wilson heard a Motown cover band at an after-hours club and alerted Motown Records CEO Berry Gordy. Bobby Taylor and the Vancouvers signed a recording contract with Motown, and Gordy produced \\u201cDoes Your Mama Know About Me,\\u201d their debut single.\\n\\nThe song was written by band members Tommy Chong and an old friend from my "Let\'s Go" TV show, Tom Baird. Tommy went on to huge success with comedy duo Cheech & Chong, and Tom Baird made a name for himself as a songwriter, arranger and producer for a number of Motown acts like Rare Earth, Gladys Knight and Stevie Wonder. At a 1968 Chicago concert, The Jackson 5 opened for Bobby and he arranged for them to audition for Berry Gordy and other Motown executives. The group was signed to Motown, and Bobby Taylor became their first producer. Bobby left Motown three years later after a financial dispute, recording sporadically into the mid-1970s. \\n\\nIn 2006, Bobby dropped by my CISL/Vancouver morning show for this interview. We covered a lot of ground: our early days together at CBC-TV\'s "Music Hop" and "Let\'s Go"; an early band member named Jimi Hendrix; the real meaning behind \\u201cDoes Your Mama Know About Me\\u201d; the musical genius of Tom Baird; a young Bruce Allen prot\\xe9g\\xe9 named Michael Bubl\\xe9; and my meeting with Sam Cooke and Bumps Blackwell. These were special moments with an old friend.\\n\\nBobby Taylor died in 2017 at a hospital in Hong Kong, where he\\u2019d been undergoing treatment for leukemia. Tommy Chong remembered him as an extraordinary singer: \\u201cHe used to do \'Danny Boy\' and make everybody cry in the audience. He would hit notes that were unbelievably high and he could sound like anybody he wanted to sound like \\u2013 Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Smokey. I\\u2019ve been with a lot of singers, but nothing like Bobby.\\u201d\\n\\nImage: Nora Tam, South China Morning Post'