Stop it Snuggle, she’s too young to understand love songs.
Ready to get your week started with another forgotten gem from the old days? The Nest has you covered since Monday’s the day each week we dig up the yard to extract another perfectly preserved hit from that earworm infected time capsule we like to call the Dusty Vinyl Archive! DJ Scratchy’s ready to drop the needle on another song so old that it actually was issued on vinyl, while the Sponkies look up the 1980’s in their ancient history textbook. If George Orwell had known the music was going to be this good in 1984, he’d have never wrote that stupid novel…
While the States embraced a number of overseas acts 40 years ago as part of the MTV-fueled Second British Invasion, one redcoat who didn’t quite make it into the US’s pantheon of 80’s legends was a strapping young lad by the name of Paul Young. At the same time the US thought Lionel Richie was shit the shit, Paul Young was one of the biggest things going over in Europe. (Fun fact I didn’t even think of before I made that comparison… while Richie led off the opening voice of “We Are the World,” it was Young who sang the first lines of the original feed the world song “Do They Know It’s Christmas?”)
Sorry Paul, you just weren’t…. um….. this cool back in the 80’s.
Young did eventually infiltrate the US market and picked up a quartet of Top 40 hits, including the #1 that nobody ever plays anymore “Every Time You Go Away.” While that 1985 Hall & Oates cover served as Peak Paul in the Western Hemisphere, his first impression on the US charts came a year earlier with a song that only made it up to #22. Despite being the lowest scoring of his four hits, it’s still his second best known song in America, but that isn’t saying much…
“Come Back and Stay” is easily my favorite Paul Young song… and hit just as my family got cable and was able to watch MTV for the first time. While this video, shot on the white cliffs of Dover or something, apparently isn’t the officially endorsed version by the artist’s YouTube channel… this is the only one I know, and love. In the same year Annie Lennox wailed like a banshee in “Here Comes the Rain,” Paul Young’s backup singer put her to shame…
Wail away. Mermaids don’t need sleep…
I wouldn’t think of tearing DJ Scratchy’s playhouse down…. I’ll have another cool lost hit next Monday!
Evil Squirrel's Nest 
I stil like it…and I liked him… till he performed radio gaga as a tribute for freddie.. that was not good…
Hmmmm…. I can’t imagine Paul doing that song. Of course, not many singers will do well imitating Freddie…
I do remember this song although it wasn’t played much……never saw the video but interesting costumes on the backup singers…..in mourning? I guess – maybe because the song never made it further than #22 here.
Pam
LOL, who knows? It looks like it’s freezing cold wherever they are, so maybe it was to keep warm too!
I rather like Love Of The Common People myself.
I didn’t recognise it until the sort-of chorus. I was never much of a Paul Young fan, though this song is fairly inoffensive I suppose (high praise from me!).
I don’t know… I should go back and look at how many of my Monday songs you’ve liked this year. “Fairly inoffensive” means I’m finally starting to get back to songs you hate…
I always liked Paul Young but can’t say as I remember this tune. Thanks for sharing another groovy hit from the 80’s!