Paul Antony Young (born 17 January 1956) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. Formerly the frontman of the short-lived bands Kat Kool & the Kool Cats, Streetband and Q-Tips, he became a teen idol with his solo success in the 1980s. His hit singles include " Love of the Common People", " Wherever I Lay My Hat", " Come Back and Stay", "

Every Time You Go Away "Everytime You Go Away" is a song written and composed by Daryl Hall. It was first recorded in 1980 by the American duo Hall & Oates but was not released as a single. A cover version of the song by Paul Young became an international hit in 1985, ...

" and "

Everything Must Change ''Everything Must Change'' is the debut studio album by singer Randy Crawford released in 1976 on the Warner Bros. label. Background It was recorded and mixed at Hollywood Sound Recorders except " I'm Easy" and "I've Never Been To Me", which, a ...

", all reaching the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. Released in 1983, his debut album, '' No Parlez'', was the first of three UK number-one albums.Paul Young: Official Charts
''Five number one albums and number one single'' (retrieved 19 August 2007) Young's smooth yet soulful voice belongs to a genre known as "

blue-eyed soul Blue-eyed soul (also called white soul) is rhythm and blues (R&B) and soul music performed by white artists. The term was coined in the mid-1960s, to describe white artists whose sound was similar to that of the predominantly-black Motown and Stax ...

". He won a Brit Award for Best British Male in 1985, and his hit "Every Time You Go Away" reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 and won Best British Video at the

1986 Brit Awards The 1986 Brit Awards were the 6th edition of the biggest annual pop music awards in the United Kingdom. They are run by the British Phonographic Industry and took place on 10 February 1986 at Grosvenor House Hotel in London. This year marked th ...

. In July 1985, Young appeared at

Live Aid Live Aid was a multi-venue benefit concert held on Saturday 13 July 1985, as well as a music-based fundraising initiative. The original event was organised by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure to raise further funds for relief of the 1983–1985 fami ...

held at Wembley Stadium, London. Young sang the

Crowded House Crowded House are a rock band, formed in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, in 1985. Its founding members were New Zealander Neil Finn (vocalist, guitarist, primary songwriter) and Australians Paul Hester (drums) and Nick Seymour (bass). Later ban ...

track " Don't Dream It's Over" at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988. In 1992, he sang " Radio Ga Ga" with the surviving members of Queen at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert. Since the mid-1990s, Young has performed with the band Los Pacaminos.

Early life

Paul Young was born in Luton, Bedfordshire, England. He has an older brother, Mark, and a younger sister, Joanne. As a youth, after school, (Primary School was Ramridge) he played football for the Vauxhall Motors factory where he worked. In his spare time, he played in several bands as a bass guitarist.

Career

The first group for which Young became lead singer was Kat Kool & the Kool Kats. In the late 1970s, he joined Streetband, who had one top 20 hit in the UK, with the humorous, novelty track "

Toast Toast most commonly refers to: * Toast (food), bread browned with dry heat * Toast (honor), a ritual in which a drink is taken Toast may also refer to: Places * Toast, North Carolina, a census-designated place in the United States Books * '' ...

". In December 1979, Streetband disbanded.

Q-Tips

The ex-Streetbanders added new recruits Dave Lathwell on guitar and Baz Watts on drums and became Q-Tips. In addition, a four piece brass section was created. Q-Tips's first rehearsals took place in November 1979. Their first concert was on 18 November 1979 at the Queens Arms Hotel in Harrow, London, Harrow. This gig was followed by another at the Horn of Plenty in St Albans. By 1 April 1980, the band had recorded two tracks, "SYSLJFM (The Letter Song)", and "Having a Party", both recorded at the Livingstone Studios in Chipping Barnet, Barnet. Constant touring and concert appearances had built a strong fan base by mid-1981. The professionalism of the band had attracted the attention of several record labels, with the late Mickie Most (RAK Records) confirming on BBC Radio 1's ''Round Table'' programme that Q-Tips "...are easily the best live band working at the moment". In August 1980, the British music magazine ''NME'' reported that Q-Tips had released their debut, eponymous album. Q-Tips appeared on BBC Television's ''In Concert'', ''Rock Goes to College'' and ''The Old Grey Whistle Test'' in the latter part of 1981. Q-Tips also opened for the J. Geils Band, the Knack, Thin Lizzy, Bob Marley and the Average White Band. The band toured with After the Fire and supported the Who on their 12-date UK tour in 1980. In 1981, Q-Tips played the Montreux Jazz Festival. With poor record sales after the release of two albums and seven singles, Q-Tips broke up in early 1982 when Young signed a solo recording contract with Columbia Records, CBS. Young briefly teamed up again with Q-Tips for a reunion tour in 1993.

Solo career and pop stardom

Young was signed by Columbia Records as a solo performer. Together with ex-Q-Tips member Ian Kewley, Young began writing and recording songs for his debut album, the breakthrough ''No Parlez''. Young's new backing band, The Royal Family, included keyboardist Kewley, fretless bass player Pino Palladino, guitarist Steve Bolton, drummer Mark Pinder, and backing singers Maz Roberts and Kim Leslie a.k.a. The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts. His first two singles, "Iron Out the Rough Spots" and a cover of "Love of the Common People", had no success, but the third, a cover of the Marvin Gaye song " Wherever I Lay My Hat", reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for three weeks in the summer of 1983. It was the first of Young's 14 British Top 40 singles. Similar success followed all over Europe. In the UK, follow-up single " Come Back and Stay" reached No. 4, and a re-release of "Love of the Common People" made it to No. 2 and even received radio airplay in the United States (thanks to its soundtrack inclusion in John Hughes's film ''Sixteen Candles''), and his debut album '' No Parlez'' was certified platinum in various countries. Paul Young by Zoran Velesinovic

The year 1984 was difficult for Young. His first heavy promotional and live concert tour of America strained his vocal cords to the extent that he was forced to rest his voice and did not sing for much of the year. He recovered sufficiently to become involved with the Band Aid (band), Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", an all-star charity project put together by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure for Ethiopian famine relief. Young sang the opening lines of the song as a replacement for David Bowie. Young returned to the UK Top Ten with a version of Ann Peebles' "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down". The latter appeared on his second album, ''The Secret of Association'', released in 1985, which secured his future success in the United States, Japan and Australia. The album went to No. 1 in the UK. That year, Young scored the biggest worldwide hit of his career with "Every Time You Go Away", a cover of a song from the 1980 Hall & Oates album ''Voices''. "Every Time You Go Away" was his biggest success in the U.S. Young's smooth yet soulful voice belongs to a genre known as "

". At the 1985 Brit Awards, Young received the award for Brit Award for British Male Solo Artist, Best British Male. Associated with the Second British Invasion of the US, "Every Time You Go Away" reached number one on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in 1985. It also won Best British Video at the

. In July 1985, Young appeared at

held at Wembley Stadium, London, performing the Band Aid hit "Do They Know It's Christmas?" (having sung the opening lines on the original single release) and his own hits "Come Back and Stay" and "Every Time You Go Away". Alison Moyet joined him on stage to perform "That's the Way Love Is (The Isley Brothers song), That's The Way Love Is". During parts of 1987, Young toured extensively as the opening act for Genesis (band), Genesis on their ''Invisible Touch Tour''. Young played more than 35 dates in 13 countries. This tour concluded on July 1-4, 1987 with four sold out shows featuring more than 350,000 fans at Wembley Stadium (1923) in London. In 1990, he released a cover of The Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl", which peaked at No. 8 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100. Young sang the

track " Don't Dream It's Over" at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988, producing a popular duet, "Senza una donna, Senza una donna (Without a Woman)," with Italian blues singer Zucchero in 1991, and singing " Radio Ga Ga" with the surviving members of Queen in 1992, at The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert soon after Freddie Mercury died. In 1991, he recorded a duet with Irish group Clannad for the Blake Edwards film ''Switch (1991 film), Switch'', a cover of the Joni Mitchell song, "Both Sides Now (song), Both Sides Now". "Don't Dream It's Over", "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)" and "Both Sides Now" were featured on Young's first greatest hits album, ''From Time To Time – The Singles Collection'' (1991). In 1993, Young was dropped from his contract with the CBS/Sony Records label. He contributed to the Vangelis album ''Voices (Vangelis album), Voices'' in 1995. Young sang the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen", at Wembley Stadium before England national football team, England's Euro '96 semi-final match against German national football team, Germany. Young's next album, ''Paul Young (album), Paul Young'', was released in 1997 on East West Records. In November 2001, when Young was on the final night of the Here and Now tour, Michael Aspel awarded him his This Is Your Life (British TV series), This is Your Life book. In 2006, he released ''Rock Swings – On the Wild Side of Swing''. In 2010, Young recorded and released a new track "Come Back (Chicane song), Come Back", a duet he did with electronic dance music act Chicane (recording artist), Chicane. The single was a sample of Young's 1983 hit " Come Back and Stay", and charted at 151 on the UK Singles Chart. The single was recorded onto Chicane's 2010 album ''Giants (Chicane album), Giants''. After a lengthy absence of recorded material, Young released an album of vintage soul songs in 2016 called ''Good Thing'' and began a lengthy period of tours and festival appearances.

Los Pacaminos

Young first formed Los Pacaminos in 1993. The reason for the group forming was Young's desire to get back to basics. He explained: "I was between record labels and writing material for a new album but I wanted to play live again. I've always loved the Tejano music, Tex-Mex sound and knew a few musicians who had a similar passion for this type of music. So I asked them to join me in forming a band. The group’s early performances were in bars and clubs, performing a mixture of their own material and covers. The album ''Los Pacaminos'' was released in 2002. The band performed and recorded throughout Europe and the UK. In 2014, the band released their second album, ''A Fistful of Statins''. Other media released by the band include an Extended play, EP and a live album.

Collaborations

Young’s earliest collaboration was in the late 1970s on Streetband’s first album ''London'', when Ian Dury made a guest appearance on the track "Mystery". In between the Q-Tips and the launch of his solo career, Young sang backing vocals on the Squeeze (band), Squeeze single "Black Coffee in Bed" with Elvis Costello. Young's best-known musical collaboration (apart from Los Pacaminos) was his early collaboration with bassist Pino Palladino. Palladino, who had collaborated with Tears for Fears, Go West (band), Go West and Gary Numan, featured on four of Young's albums: '' No Parlez'', ''The Secret of Association'', ''The Crossing (Paul Young album), The Crossing'' and ''Other Voices (Paul Young album), Paul Young''. Palladino was the bass player in Young's backing band The Royal Family and played at Live Aid. Young released a version of the song "Both Sides, Now" with Irish group Clannad for the 1991 motion picture ''Switch (1991 film), Switch''.

Personal life

Young met his wife, former model Stacey Smith, on his video for "Come Back and Stay" in 1983. They married while they were living in Los Angeles in November 1987. They have three children: daughters Levi (born March 1987), Layla (born August 1994), and son Grady Cole (born January 1996). Young and Smith split up in May 2006 and then reconciled in March 2009. On 26 January 2018, it was announced that Stacey Young had died of brain cancer, aged 52. Young is a close friend of singer and former Spandau Ballet front man Tony Hadley. The two toured Australia and New Zealand during October and November 2008.Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet) and Paul Young October Tour
Liveguide.com.au; retrieved 20 January 2012.

Discography

*'' No Parlez'' (1983) *''The Secret of Association'' (1985) *''Between Two Fires (album), Between Two Fires'' (1986) *''Other Voices (Paul Young album), Other Voices'' (1990) *''The Crossing (Paul Young album), The Crossing'' (1993) *''Reflections (Paul Young album), Reflections'' (1994) *''Paul Young (album), Paul Young'' (1997) *''Rock Swings – On the Wild Side of Swing'' (2006) *''Good Thing'' (2016) *''Behind the Lens'' (2023)

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Young, Paul 1956 births Living people 20th-century English male singers 20th-century English singers 21st-century English male singers 21st-century English singers CBS Records artists Columbia Records artists English male singer-songwriters English new wave musicians English pop rock singers English pop singers English rock singers English soul singers Los Pacaminos members MCA Records artists Male new wave singers People educated at Ashcroft High School Musicians from Luton Second British Invasion artists