Lynsey de Paul (11 June 1948 – 1 October 2014) was an English singer-songwriter. She was the first woman to ever receive an Ivor Novello Award for Best Ballad or Romantic Song for her composition "Won't Somebody Dance With Me" in 1973.
She was born Lynsey Monckton Rubin into a north London
Jewish household, the daughter of Meta and Herbert Rubin. Her father was a
property developer. As a child, Lynsey learned classical piano and, on leaving
South Hampstead high school, studied art and design at Hornsey College. After
graduation, she worked as a commercial artist and designer of album sleeves
while honing her skills as a songwriter.
In 1971, De Paul signed a contract with the music
publisher ATV Kirshner. There she became a prolific composer, often writing in
partnership with other ATV staff such as Blue and Ron Roker. Her earliest songs
to be recorded were sung by the child actor Jack Wild, but the first to be a
hit was the Roker-
Rubin number Storm in a Teacup by the Fortunes in 1972.
She was soon signed by the MAM label. Her debut single, Sugar Me, released under the name Lynsey de Paul, featured her piano playing as well as high-pitched vocals, and reached No 5. In the US, Nancy Sinatra recorded the song.
Rubin number Storm in a Teacup by the Fortunes in 1972.
She was soon signed by the MAM label. Her debut single, Sugar Me, released under the name Lynsey de Paul, featured her piano playing as well as high-pitched vocals, and reached No 5. In the US, Nancy Sinatra recorded the song.
Over the next five years, De Paul's telegenic looks and
catchy songs made her a ubiquitous figure in British popular culture. After her
second single, Getting a Drag, became a top 20 hit, she recorded the plaintive
Won't Somebody Dance With Me, which climbed to No 14 in 1973. The number was
chosen by De Paul's peers as the best contemporary pop song at the annual Ivor
Novello awards ceremony.
By now, De Paul was in demand as a composer for
television, and her theme for the comedy series No, Honestly was both a top 10
hit and the winner of her second Novello award in 1974. The record was issued
on Jet, a label owned by De Paul's new manager, Don Arden, a tough figure in
the music business.
De Paul soon realised she had made a bad choice in asking
him to represent her. In 1976 she received the Woman of the Year Award For
Music from the Variety Club of Great Britain. As she tried to extricate herself
from the arrangement with Don Arden, she was offered the opportunity to
represent the UK in the 1977 Eurovision song contest. She sang Rock Bottom,
which she had written with Mike Moran, and came second. Rock Bottom was a hit
not only in Britain but in several continental European countries, including
Germany and France.
A petite 4ft 11in but glamorous, with a mane of blonde
curls and a beauty spot above her lip, Lynsey de Paul dated a succession of
high-profile men, including George Best, Ringo Starr, Dodi Fayed and the film
stars James Coburn and Sean Connery – who, according to one report, pursued her
with “a vigour of which James Bond would have been proud, and a line in
flattery which even 007 couldn’t match”. While in Moscow filming The Russia
House (1990) he reportedly called her to say: “I can only kiss Michelle
Pfeiffer if I think of you.”
The Eurovision song contest proved the end of De Paul's
career as a pop star, but she continued composing and broadened her activities
during the 1980s and beyond. Her songs were recorded by performers including
Shirley Bassey, Ricky Martin, Heatwave and the Real Thing. There were further
theme songs for light entertainment series such as The Rag Trade and Hi!
Summer. De Paul also wrote and recorded songs for children, and returned to her
first love, classical music, by orchestrating and performing works by Bach and
Handel.
She spent several years in California in the late 1970s
and early 1980s with the actor James Coburn, who co-wrote two tracks on her
fifth album, Tigers and Fireflies (1979), and encouraged her to diversify into
acting. Returning to Britain in 1982, she appeared in the British version of
the US musical Pump Boys and Dinettes and films including The Starlight
Ballroom (1983) and Gabrielle and the Doodleman (1984) for which she also wrote
the score. The British jeans industry named her Rear of the Year in 1985, an
award she accepted by thanking the organisers “from the heart of my bottom”.
In the 1990s she bought a Victorian mansion in north
London which she called Moot Grange, an anagram of No Mortgage. “I also
considered Gnome Groat,” she explained, “and, because I’m a vegetarian and
don’t drink, No Meat/Grog.” A long-time campaigner for animal rights, she
shared the house with a three-legged cat called Tripod and enjoyed her
comparative anonymity. She was seen frequently on television, on a range of
shows from the talent contest New Faces, on which she was a judge, to consumer
programmes such as Club Vegetarian and Shopper's Heaven.
De Paul suffered a brain haemorrhage on the morning of 1
October 2014 and died in a London hospital. Her niece, Olivia Rubin, told The
Times that her death was "completely unexpected", adding: "She
was a vegetarian, she didn't smoke, she didn't drink – she was amazing, in
fact." (Edited from The Guardian
& Telegraph)
1 comment:
For “Sugar And Beyond Anthology 1972-1974” go here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/wc49qwdkdq9h97f/LDP72-74.rar/file
Disc: 1
1. Sugar Me
2. Storm In A Teacup
3. Getting A Drag
4. Brandy
5. Mama Do
6. Ivory Tower
7. Doctor Doctor
8. Crossword Puzzle
9. Water
10. Sleeping Blue Nights
11. The Way It Goes
12. Rockerdile
13. Just Visiting
14. House Of Cards (Unreleased)
15. Taking It On (Unreleased)
Disc: 2
1. All Night
2. Blind Leading The Blind
3. Won't Somebody Dance With Me
4. So Good To You
5. Ooh I Do
6. Nothing Really Lasts Forever
7. My Man And Me
8. Moonrise
9. Taste Me
10. Let's Boogie
11. Dancing On A Saturday Night
12. Lying Again
13. If Only
14. Rainbow
15. Nursery Rhyme
16. When I'm Alone With You
17. No Honestly
18. Central Park Arrest
Original recordings:
1-1 to 1-4: ℗ 1972, 1-5-to 1-13: ℗ 1973, 2-1 to 2-4: ℗ 2013: Chrysalis Copyrights Ltd., licenced from BMG Chrysalis. 1-14, 1-15: ℗ 2013, 2-5 to 2-18 ℗ 1974 Lynsey de Paul Ltd. This compilation ℗ 2013 RPM Records. 1-14, 1-15: previously unreleased.
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For “Into My Music Anthology 1975-1979” go here:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/3j9mqxrwlh2xxxt/LDP75-79.rar/file
Disc: 1
1. Sugar Shuffle
2. Shoobeedoo Wey Doobee How
3. Love Bomb
4. Dreams
5. Crystal Ball
6. Hug And Squeeze Me
7. Hungry For Love
8. You Are The Happiest Day Of My Life
9. Season To Season
10. Rhythm And Blue Jean Baby
11. Into My Music
12. You Made Me Write This Song
13. If I Don't Get You The Next One Will
Disc: 2
1. Call Me (Unreleased)
2. They d Rather Be Making Money (Unreleased)
3. Before You Go Tonight (Unreleased)
4. Take Your Time (Unreleased)
5. You Either Got It Or You Ain t (Unreleased)
6. Martian Man (Unreleased)
7. Do Unto Others (Unreleased)
8. Rock Bottom - Lynsey De Paul & Mike Moran
9. You Shouldn't Say That - Lynsey De Paul & Mike Moran
10. You Give Me Those Feelings
11. Beautiful
12. Tigers And Fireflies
13. Losin' The Blues For You
14. Without You
15. Forever And A Day
16. Melancholy Melon
Tracks 2-1 to 2-7 is the previously unreleased third LP for JET recorded in 1976. 1-1 to 1-12: ℗ 1975, 1-13: ℗ 1976, 2-1 to 2-7: ℗ 2013, 2-8 to 2-11 ℗ 1977, 2-9 to 2-16 ℗ 1979 Lynsey de Paul Ltd. this compilation ℗ 2013 RPM Records.
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