Paul Young - Later Career

Later Career

The Q-Tips disbanded in 1982, and Young was signed by Columbia Records as a solo performer.

Young’s new backing band 'The Royal Family' included keyboardist Kewley, fretless bass player Pino Palladino, guitarist Steve Bolton, drummer Mike Pinder, and backing singers Maz Roberts and Kim Leslie AKA 'The Fabulous Wealthy Tarts'. Helped by the driving sound of Pino Palladino's fretless bass in his backing band, 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 (That's My Home)", reached No. 1 in the UK singles chart for three weeks in the summer of 1983, the first of 14 British Top 40 singles. (The song was included on the soundtrack of the 1992 British comedy film Peter's Friends.

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"), while his debut album No Parlez was certified platinum in various countries.

Young's style at the time was a warm, approachable white soul, though he sometimes received playful criticism for his fashion decisions. However, his choice of an Antony Price leather suit for the cover of No Parlez proved to be impractical for the concert stage, where his energetic shows dictated more robust clothing.

The year 1984 was a difficult one for Young, as his first heavy promotional and live concert tour of America strained his vocal cords severely, to the extent that he was completely unable to sing for most of the year. He recovered sufficiently to provide a famous lead performance on the opening and closing lines to the Band Aid single "Do They Know It's Christmas?", a charity project put together by Bob Geldof and Midge Ure, which also featured famed singers and bandleaders such as Simon Le Bon, Francis Rossi and Bono.

He 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. However, he continued to have occasional voice and throat difficulties. That year, Young scored the biggest worldwide hit of his career with "Everytime You Go Away", a version of a Daryl Hall song from a 1980 Hall & Oates album. "Every Time You Go Away" topped the pop charts in the U.S., and was his biggest success in the U.S. He would perform the song during the London segment of the Live Aid concert.

In 1990, he released a cover of The Chi-Lites' "Oh Girl", which peaked at #8 on the Billboard Hot 100.

He continued to have a successful career, with some highlights such as singing the Crowded House track "Don't Dream It's Over" at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute in 1988, producing a popular duet, "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, a cover of the Joni Mitchell song, "Both Sides Now".

"Don't Dream It's Over", "Senza una donna (Without a Woman)" and "Both Sides Now" were all featured on his first greatest hits album, From Time To Time - The Singles Collection, released in 1991. The album included the most prominent hit singles from Young's first four solo albums, the three above-mentioned songs, and a previously unreleased selection called "I'm Only Foolin' Myself".

In 1993, Young was freed from his contract with the CBS/Sony Records label, and afterward, released fewer solo albums. He reformed the Q-Tips for a short series of concerts that year. He contributed to the Vangelis album Voices in 1995. Young sang the British national anthem, "God Save the Queen", at Wembley Stadium before England's Euro '96 semi-final match against Germany.

In 1995, Young formed his own backing group Los Pacaminos, and first performed with the group in Hyde Park, London the same year. In 1996 however, Young was once again performing solo. By mid-1996, Young made his last full public performance with Tony Hadley, before declining to perform more in nightclubs and pubs so that he could concentrate more on his personal life and family without having to organise tours. In late-1996, Young co-wrote the song "Build Me Up" for Tony Hadley with Hadley. The song was the only song Young had written for another artist, and was recorded into the soundtrack of the 1996 film When Saturday Comes.

Also in late 1996, Young set about recording for his next album, Paul Young, which was released the following year.

From there, he was known to divide his time between family, the informal Tex-Mex group Los Pacaminos, and performing live during 1980s revival tours in the UK between 2001 and 2008. 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 book. The show went out on BBC One on 5 December that year.

2006 saw the release of Rock Swings - On The Wild Side Of Swing. In September 2006, he appeared in the BBC1 cooking show Celebrity MasterChef, and won his show, allowing him a place in the semi-finals. A year later, he was a contestant on another cooking show, ITV's Hell's Kitchen.

Although his musical career had began to decline, as well as appearing on Celebrity MasterChef and Hell's Kitchen, Young began to make more appearances on the media. He appeared as a guest on shows including The Wright Stuff, This Morning and The One Show.

In 2010, Young recorded and released a new hit "Come Back", a duet he did with electronic dance music act 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.