John Paul Young

Australian singer John Paul Young was born on June 21, 1950 in Glasgow, Scotland. Relocating to Sydney in 1966 he started working as a sheet metal worker prior to being discovered by songwriters and record producers Harry Vanda and George Young.

In 1972 Simon Napier Bell was looking for a singer to record a song he thought worthy of air play: The song was 'Pasadena'. The result was John's first top ten single, peaking at number eight on the Australian chart. 

John Paul Young charted ten singles over the next six years with 'You Drive Me Crazy' (1973), 'Show And Tell' (1974), 'Yesterday's hero' (1975), 'The love game' (1975), 'I hate the music' (1976), 'Keep on smiling' (1976), 'I wanna do it with you' (1977), 'Here we go' (1977) and 'Where the action is' (1977). The four albums that contained these hits, Hero, JPY, Green and All the best were all top twenty hits in Australia. In addition he achieved hit singles in Europe, Asia and South Africa. 'Yesterday's hero' also became a minor hit in the U.S.

In 1978 he released the 12" single of 'Standing in the rain'. The song charted throughout Europe and Australia and gained him an entire new following, the club generation. The follow-up 12" single, 'Love Is In The Air', became his only worldwide hit, peaking at number two on the Australian charts, number seven in the U.S., and number five in the U.K.

In 1984 the album One foot in front was released spawning the singles, 'War games' and 'Soldier of fortune'. The album had a heavy European influence and on release was receiving close attention both in Australia and Europe until the record company went broke. This spelt disaster for any success the album would have had & it faded into obscurity. He had his final top ten hit (to date) in Australia in 1983 with the single 'Soldier of fortune'.

John ceased recording new music and concentrated on a second career as a radio disc jockey until the film Strictly Ballroom was released in 1992. The film featured a remixed version of 'Love is in the air'. The film was a success throughout the world, and Young's single once again peaked at number two on the Australian charts, and charted in clubs around the world.

In 2000 and John performed at the Sydney Olympic Games Closing Ceremony.

In 2006 John returned to the stage to blow away audiences in the Countdown Spectacular Tour.