Lynsey de Paul (born Lyndsey Monckton Rubin; 11 June 1948 – 1 October 2014) was an English singer-songwriter and record producer. After initially writing hits for others, she had her own chart hits in the UK and Europe in the 1970s, starting with UK top 10 single "Sugar Me", and became the first British female artist to achieve a number one with a self-written song (in 1972 in Belgium, Spain and the Netherlands). She represented the UK in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977 alongside Mike Moran with the song "Rock Bottom", finishing in second place and scoring another chart-topping hit in Switzerland, and had a successful career as a songwriter, record producer, actress and television celebrity.
Early life Lyndsey Monckton Rubin was born to Meta (née de Groot) and Herbert Rubin, a property developer. They were a Jewish family with a Dutch, Austrian and German background,Interview "I have always had my eye on the exit", Choice Magazine, December 2007, pp. 23–25, Choice Publishing Ltd and had one other child, John (born 1944). She studied classical music with a tutor from the Royal Academy of Music.M Magazine, Issue 54, p. 34, published on 11 December 2014 She attended South Hampstead High School followed by Hornsey College of Art, now part of Middlesex University. After graduating, De Paul began designing record cover sleeve and poster artwork, notably for two albums by The Pipkins (who had an international hit with "Gimme Dat Ding"). De Paul later revealed that she and her brother suffered physical abuse at the hands of their father. In one incident as a student aged 19, de Paul was concussed for two days following a fight with her violent father, prompting her to leave her comfortable family home for a two-roomed flat above an Indian restaurant near her college.
Career Early songwriting Three of de Paul's earliest songs were co-written with Don Gould (formerly a member of the Applejacks) and recorded by Oliver! performer Jack Wild: "Takin' It Easy" and "Bring Yourself Back To Me" from the album Everything's Coming Up Roses, which was released in 1971. "Bring Yourself Back To Me" was also the B-side to Wild's 1971 US single "(Holy Moses!) Everything's Coming Up Roses". Another song co-penned by her, this time with Edward Adamberry, called "E.O.I.O.", was recorded by Wild as a track on his 1972 album A Beautiful World, and also released as a single by the Beads as well as an album track, "Io...Aio (EEO-EIO)" by the Italian group Domodossola on their album D... Come Domodossola.
After these initial successes, she was contracted to ATV-Kirshner music publishing (now Sony Music Publishing) by Eddie Levy when she was 18 years old. ATV Music (now Sony Music Publishing) was located above the Peter Robinson's store on Oxford Street, where she joined a group of professional songwriters that included Barry Blue (at that time known as Barry Green) and Ron Roker (later to become Blue's brother-in-law), resulting in revenues from songs recorded by other artists. One of their earliest songs (and the only song where all three collaborated) was "Sugarloaf Hill", recorded by the reggae artist, Del Davis (with De Paul singing backing vocals) and finally released on the Trojan Carnival Box Set CD in 2003 as part of the Trojan Box Set series.
Her first major breakthrough came early in 1972 as the co-writer (with Ron Roker) of the Fortunes' top 10 UK hit "Storm in a Teacup".The Ringo Starr Encyclopedia, Bill Harry, Virgin Publishing, 1 February 2011, De Paul performed the song the same year on the BBC's The Two Ronnies. Canadian singer Ginette Reno recorded a French language version of the song ("Dans la vie, tout s'arrange") which reached No. 2 on the French-Canadian top 10.RPM, 10 March 1973, p. 23 Around this time, she also had chart success in Malaysia and the Netherlands as the writer of "On the Ride (You Do It Once, You Do It Twice)", a top 30 hit by the Continental Uptight Band, and also "When You've Gotta Go", an Australian chart hit recorded and released by Solomon King.Top 100 (ARIA Chart) Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988-2010. Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing All three songs credited her as 'L. Rubin'. Other notable songs from this period included "Papa Do", which was released by Barry Green as a single, and made the lower reaches of the French singles chart, as well as "Crossword Puzzle", also co-penned with Barry Green and which led to an appearance on Top of the Pops and Saturday Variety for the Irish singer Dana. "Crossword Puzzle" peaked at No. 2 on the Bangkok singles chart.Billboard, 2 September 1972, p. 56 De Paul's own versions of both of these two songs would later be found as tracks on her debut album, Surprise. "Boomerang", the B-side to "Papa Do" and another de Paul/Blue collaboration was released as a single in the UK by the Young Generation, a group of dancers and singers recruited by Dougie Squires and they performed it on their BBC prime time TV show while a French version was also released by Jane and Julie. Geno Washington & the Ram Jam Band recorded their version of "Boomerang" in 1972, which appeared on their 1998 compilation album and their 2016 album, Geno!. In an interview with Cashbox in early 1972, Don Kirshner said "We are looking for another Carole King. We think we found her in Lynsey Rubin."Cashbox, 11 March 1972, p. 47
Singer-songwriter: Early to mid-1970s Although she had recorded demo versions of her songs, de Paul was initially a reluctant performer. She wrote the song "Sugar Me" for Peter Noone, but her boyfriend at the time, Dudley Moore, suggested that she take a demo version to Gordon Mills, who urged her to record it herself and release it on his MAM record label. Explaining her change of name from Rubin, she said: "There had just been the massacre of Jewish athletes at the Munich Olympics and I was told that it would be better not to have an obviously Jewish name. For my stage name I took De from my mother's maiden name, De Groot, and my father's middle name was Paul". Released as a single on the MAM Records label, "Sugar Me" rapidly reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart, as well as the top of the singles charts in the Netherlands, Spain and Belgium. The arrangement featured a distinctive piano counter-melody motif as well as Hammond organ backing, a violin solo and a distinctive whip-crack.
This was the start of de Paul's becoming a regular British chart and television fixture over the next five years. Her follow-up single to "Sugar Me" was "Getting a Drag", which reached the UK top 20, as well as being a hit on the official German singles chart. She appeared on the first episode of the German music show Musikladen on 13 December 1972, where she performed her two German hit singles "Sugar Me" and "Getting a Drag", as well as a few weeks later performing "Doctor, Doctor", which would appear on her debut album several months later. She was listed as the best female artist of 1972 by Record Mirror,Record Mirror, 13 January 1973 female performer of the year by Radio Luxembourg as well as the third best female singer in the 1973 New Musical Express (NME) music poll.New Musical Express, 27 January 1973
In March 1973, her first album, Surprise, was released on the MAM label. As well as writing or co-writing all of the songs on Surprise, de Paul was also the producer for all of the tracks. In his 2015 autobiography, label mate Tom Jones wrote: "We had Lynsey de Paul, a big star, though she fell out with Gordon (Mills) for wanting to produce her own records". Later that year, after "All Night", her third single, co-written with Ron Roker and released on the MAM label, failed to chart in the UK, de Paul returned to the UK top 20 with "Won't Somebody Dance with Me", which was also a hit in Ireland and the Netherlands and covered in the US. According to an interview with Michael Robson, featured in the liner notes to "Sugar and Beyond", de Paul had to fight hard to get this single released - indeed she would have preferred it in place of "All Night" and also to keep the long closing instrumental part of the song.Michael Robson, Liner notes, Sugar and Beyond, RETRO D923, RPM/Cherry Red Records, 2013 She was vindicated since it was a chart hit and she was presented with an Ivor Novello Award for the song, the first woman to receive the award. The BBC Radio 1 disc jockey Ed Stewart spoke the words "May I have the pleasure of this dance" near the end of the record (he often played the record on his Junior Choice programme on Saturday mornings) although Tony Blackburn and Dave Lee Travis spoke these words when she appeared on BBC Television's Top of the Pops. De Paul performed the song on the 500th edition special on 4 October 1973,Music Week, 17 March 1979, p. 222 one day before the date of the release of the single. The flip side of "Won't Somebody Dance with Me" was "So Good to You", a song covered by Lenny Zakatek on the B-side of his single "I Gotcha Now". "I Gotcha Now" was also written by de Paul, originally for Slade. In Japan, "So Good to You" was released as the A-side with "Won't Somebody Dance with Me" being relegated to the B-side. Another song co-written by de Paul, "Today Gluggo, Tomorrow the World", was the B-side of "Don't You Let It Bring You Down" by the Spencer Davis Group, as well as an album track on their 1973 Gluggo.
De Paul recorded the female lyric to Mott the Hoople's album track version of "Roll Away the Stone", but the female trio Thunderthighs appeared on the hit single version of the song.Note: The 1973 single version, with Mick Ralphs on guitar, was recorded with Thunderthighs on backing vocals, with one of them speaking the "Well I got my invite"/"Oh will do!" part. It was re-recorded in 1974, with Ariel Bender on guitar, for the subsequent The Hoople album, with de Paul speaking the same part. (Most available recordings of this version have a strange unintended distortion on her vocal, which was fixed on later reissues). However, the de Paul album version was released as a single in Japan, with the single being credited to "Mott The Hoople & Lynsey de Paul". She was also credited for backing vocals on a second track on the album The Hoople called "Alice". In 1973, when Mick Ralphs left Mott the Hoople, his replacement Luther Grosvenor was contractually obliged to change his name – de Paul suggested Ariel Bender. She also provided backing vocals (credited as "Loony") on "Rock 'n' Roll Winter (Loony's Tune) (Sorry, the Word Spring Wouldn't Fit)" and thus helped Wizzard (fronted by Roy Wood; her boyfriend at the time) reach the UK top 10 in 1974. In February of that year, de Paul was voted top female singer in the UK music weekly Disc Readers Awards Poll, while David Bowie was voted top male singer and Slade the top group. De Paul was also voted female singer of 1974 by Israeli radio station Galei Zahal.Billboard, p. 80, 12 April 1975
After appointing Don Arden her new manager at the end of 1973, in part because her former manager Harold Davison fell ill earlier that year, de Paul released "Ooh I Do" in May 1974, which became a chart hit in the UK, Belgium, Netherlands, Brazil and Japan. The song's co-writer, Barry Blue, also recorded a version of the song as an album track with different lyrics for the verses.In Perfect Harmony: Singalong Pop in ’70s Britain, Will Hodgkinson, September 15, 2022, Publisher: Bonnier Books UK, De Paul also wrote her first TV theme tune ("Pilger theme") for Pilger where journalist, John Pilger, examined various political issues at the time (1974-1977) in a series of 25 minute documentaries. Another theme song, this time co-written with Barry Blue, was recorded and released as a single by the UK group Rain, featuring Stephanie De Sykes as the vocalist. The song "Golden Day", released as a single on 12 July 1974, was used as the theme for the TV game show The Golden Shot.