While I like a lot of what Paul Young has done, I absolutely loved the album, The Secret of Association. And this song, brought out in 1984/85 is sonically brilliant. How many songs do you know that can pull off having the bass be the lead instrument?
But Paul is not the first artist to have this as a hit song. That would go to Ann Peebles and her 1973 version:
While the Ann Peebles version is soulful, it doesn't hold a candle to the Paul Young version. She didn't make the pop charts with it, although she did hit number 31 on the soul chart. Her most popular song, I Can't Stand The Rain, hit number 6 soul, and 38 on the pop charts, her only top 40 hit. That song was also covered, in 1978 by a band called Eruption, and it also bested Ann's chart success reaching number 18 pop.
But in 1984, it didn't look like Paul Young's version of this song was going to chart at all in the US. He had some success with Come Back and Stay, and Love of the Common People from his album No Parlez, hitting at 22 and 45 respectively on the US pop charts. And while Playhouse did well in the UK, hitting number 9 there, it didn't even break the hot 100 here.
Then, Paul's remake of Hall and Oates' Everytime You Go Away hit number one in the states, and Playhouse got re-released. It hit number 13 in 1985. Paul would only have one more top 10, with the 1990 hit Oh, Girl going to number 8, and another top 40 song in 1992 with What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, which hit number 22.
Selection B18 is One Step Forward, a haunting ballad that actually makes bongos sound sad. Worth at least one listen, but probably won't do much in this jukebox.
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