Paul Young is an English pop singer and musician from Luton, Bedfordshire. Born Paul Antony Young in 1956, he starts out as a bass guitarist and works in a range of bands before becoming known as a lead singer. He forms the basis of a career that moves between blue-eyed soul, pop, pop rock, rock, soft rock and soul.

Early bands and first success

Young first becomes a lead singer in Kat Kool & The Kool Kats before joining Streetband in the late 1970s. Streetband has a UK Top 20 hit with the novelty single “Toast”, which reaches number 18 in November 1978. After Streetband breaks up in December 1979, he forms Q-Tips. The group builds a live following and supports The Who on their 1982 tour, but does not have a UK chart hit. Its single “Letter Song” has minor success in mainland Europe.

Solo career in the 1980s

After Q-Tips split in 1982, Young signs to CBS Records as a solo artist. His early solo singles, “Iron Out the Rough Spots” and a cover of Nicky Thomas’s “Love of the Common People”, do not chart, but his third single, a version of Marvin Gaye’s B-side “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)”, reaches number one in the UK for three weeks in 1983. It becomes the first of fourteen British Top 40 singles. Follow-up singles “Come Back and Stay” and the re-release of “Love of the Common People” also chart highly, and his debut album No Parlez is certified platinum in several countries.

In 1984, heavy touring in the United States affects his voice, and he is unable to sing properly for much of the year. He later performs the opening line on the Band Aid single “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” His second album, The Secret of Association, helps maintain his success in the US, Japan and Australia. The album also contains his biggest worldwide hit, “Everytime You Go Away”, a cover of a Daryl Hall song, which reaches number one on the US pop chart in 1985.

Later recordings and collaborations

Young’s third album, Between Two Fires, in 1986, and Other Voices, in 1990, are commercial disappointments, though Other Voices does well in the US. A duet with Zucchero, “Senza una donna-Without a Woman”, returns him to success in 1991. A greatest hits album that follows includes duet recordings with Clannad and Joni Mitchell, along with the new track “I’m Only Foolin Myself”.

He sings “Radio Ga Ga” with Queen at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. In 1993, he releases The Crossing, which gives him his first solo UK Top 20 hit since “Everytime You Go Away” with “Now I Know What Made Otis Blue”. After that, he is freed from his CBS contract. He later issues the covers album Reflections in 1994, contributes to Vangelis’s Voices in 1995, and sings “God Save the Queen” on the eve of England’s Euro 96 semi-final against Germany. His 1997 album, his last to feature original material on EastWest Records, includes “I Wish You Well”, his final UK Top 40 hit, and shifts towards a country-influenced sound.

Los Pacaminos and later work

In 1992, Young forms Los Pacaminos, a Tex-Mex style live band that includes musicians such as Jamie Moses and the late Matt Irving. The group releases two albums, with a third planned for release in 2024. Young also releases covers albums Rock Swings On The Wild Side of Swing in 2006, which is issued only in Germany, and Good Thing in 2016. He continues to tour both solo and with Los Pacaminos.