Paul Young rocks jeans and a wife-beater (pardon the term) here on his lone MusiCard. Despite being a British artist, he wasn't included in the UK edition.
I don't know much about Paul Young going into this post, but I've always liked "Everytime You Go Away" (which turns out is a cover of a Hall & Oates deep cut). And on the topic of going away, another good one from him is "Come Back and Stay" (For Good This Time). I assume they provide his full name on the back of the card in part because there was another prominent English singer also named Paul Young, best known for singing lead on "All I Need Is a Miracle" with Mike + the Mechanics. That Paul Young died from a heart attack in 2000, but this Paul Young is still with us.
Paul Young - "Everytime You Go Away"
Wikipedia tells me he's known for "blue-eyed soul", having hits with covers of old songs, such as "Oh Girl" and "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted", both of which I remember hearing in heavy rotation during my first job working at Kmart in the mid 90s. He also scored a minor hit with a more modern cover in 1991 with "Don't Dream It's Over", originally by Crowded House. Gotta admit I didn't realize until this post that he's from England, never picking up a hint of an accent in his vocals. Sure enough, he's got the opening lines of the big UK charity single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" from 1984. Another notable appearance was at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert in '92, performing "Radio Ga Ga" with the surviving members of Queen.
While not incredibly active in recent decades, Paul Young is still at it, with his latest album coming out in 2023. He also has a tex-mex side project called Los Pacaminos.
Another British artist I first came to know on the syndicated British countdown show I listened to on my local radio station. The song was "Come Back And Stay," which I've always liked. I was disappointed by "Every Time You Go Away" -- we had the Hall and Oates album that song is from (came out 4 years earlier) and wasn't crazy about it then. I did like "I"m Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down" a couple years later. Bought the 45 in my final stages of buying 45s.
ReplyDeletePaul Young is a big favorite of mine. When his first solo album came out, I heard "Love Of The Common People" on a local college station and really liked it. They ended up bringing him in for a free concert and a friend and I went to see him. I thought he was terrific. Absolutely great voice. "Love Of The Common People" is still my favorite of his, but that whole first album is terrific. From his later stuff I like "Now I Know What Made Otis Blue." And with his old group the Q-Tips he did a really nice version of the Temptations classic "I Wish It Would Rain".
ReplyDeleteEverytime You Go Away still gets a lot of airtime on one of the radio stations I listen to when I'm not listening to sports radio. The other song you included is also familiar, but honestly before reading this post I couldn't tell you who Paul Young was.
ReplyDeleteI'm bummed to hear the other Paul Young passed away. Although I didn't know him by name either, I liked Mike & the Mechanics.