Friday Nite Retro
Welcome once again to Friday Nite Retro here at Left in Aboite! Tonight's feature is Mr.80's Blue-Eyed Soul himself, Paul Young. I had thought Paul Young was dead; turns out he is, but not THIS Paul Young. The Paul Young who sang in "Mike & the Mechanics" and Sad Cafe died from a heart attack in 2000.
THIS Paul Young just turned 51 on January 17th. He got his start as the teenage lead singer of "Kat Kool & The Kool Kats". In the 70's he joined "StreetBand" which scored #18 on the UK charts in 1978 with this silly little song about toast:
Toast
But you'll probably remember Paul more from his debut album here in the states, "No Parlez", which featured this catchy little number:
Come Back and Stay
In 1984, Paul suffered from a serious throat condition that left him completely unable to sing. He recovered enough to join Band-Aid at the end of the year for this perennial Christmas favorite. Enjoy all of the 80's pop stars in this one:
Do They Know It's Christmas
His problems with his vocal fold nodules led to surgery after that, which changed his voice, evident here in this comeback single:
I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down
Paul's biggest hit came with his 1985 rendition of Daryl Hall's "Every Time You Go Away":
Every Time You Go Away
Paul has worked with many other performers over the years,including Crowded House and with Queen on this tribute to Freddie Mercury shortly after his death:
Radio Gaga
His latest effort is a swing styled album which was released in Germany on November 6th 2006. "Rock Swings" contains such diverse tracks as Eminem's "Lose yourself", Soft Cell's "Tainted Love", David Bowie's "The Jean Genie", Metallica's "Enter Sandman" and Elvis Presley's "In the Ghetto", all recorded with a big band sound.
Labels: FNR, Paul Young
posted by John Good @ 7:35 PM
6 Comments:
Yay Toast! (that was actually a bit odd)
I'm liking this retro more and more.
Big Band renditions of Metallica? That sounds fairly tantalyzing!
OK, this retro thing is really becoming a must-do.
I will be back this evening when I can dedicate 45 minutes of glorious UNINTERRUPTED music time.
Oh, I'm gonna love it, too.
This is just bad-ass. Seriously.
Although I was not familiar with "Toast" (how did I miss that way back when) as soon as he hit that first note, I IMMEDIATELY knew the voice.
And then, OMG. "Come Back and Stay."
I used to LOVE that song. Loved it.
And the Christmas song was cracking me up, mostly seeing all those long-ago stars and those wickedly BIG HAIR days. On the girls and the dudes. HILARIOUS!!
And you are right (of course) about the dramatic change in his voice on "I'm Gonna Tear Your Playhouse Down." MUCH more bluesy-style sound to it.
And "Every Time You Go Away" is just some of the best making-out music EVER.
And "Radio Gaga" had me dancing in my office.
BTW, I LOVE Crowded House. I have very fond memories of covering Texas Politics during the Legislative Session of the mid-80's for a newspaper and listening to them. In Austin.
You rock.
Great stuff.
Parson - QUITE odd!
Sumo - Damn! I hafta keep this up? =) Thank you!
Lew - If they can make those tunes into lullabies, why not?
Hill - I'm glad it's appreciated. =)
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