Along with "Just Say You're Wanted And Needed", this song, "You Better Watch Out", was one of two phenomenally popular Northern Soul monsters by Detroit born Gwen Owens. 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 and she stated that she would. Her first release soon followed, the REM 45 "Mystery of Love". 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 (a small town about 25 miles north of Detroit), 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" which was released on the local Lau-Reen label. Around the same time (mid 67), Gwen also enjoyed a release on LA based Uptown Records, "Take A Look". In 1969, George McGregor (a drummer, working in conjunction with Timmy Willis) 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. They committed 5 songs to tape but Motown decided to pass on them all. With no plans to release any of her cuts, Motown released Gwen from her contract but Terry Woodford shopped her master tapes around. They soon secured a deal with Casablanca Records and the label released "You Better Watch Out / Everybody Needs Love" in 1973. The company was however going through a change in distributor at the time (Warner Bros) and so in 1974 they reissued the single and it was also to become Gwen's first UK released single in the same year.
