Lynsey de Paul was an English singer-songwriter and 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. She represented the UK in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, scoring another chart-topping hit in Switzerland and had a successful career as a two-time Ivor Novello Award-winning composer, record producer, actress and television celebrity.
"Rock Bottom" was the British entry in the Eurovision Song Contest 1977, performed in English by Lynsey de Paul and Mike Moran. It was also written and produced by de Paul and Moran and released on the Polydor record label. Originally it was written for the group Blue Mink; and submitted unbeknown to de Paul and Moran as an entry for A Song For Europe by the publishers; when it was selected, de Paul agreed to perform the song if Moran would join her. On 9 March 1977, "Rock Bottom" was selected to represent the UK at the A Song for Europe 1977 event held at the New London Theatre, presented by Terry Wogan.
Taste Me...Don't Waste Me is the third album by the English singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul but the second album of completely new material and de Paul also was the producer for all of the songs. It was released in the UK in November 1974 and was the first album on Don Arden's then new label, Jet Records, and initially distributed by Polydor, although Island Records was soon contracted by Arden to take over distribution. Releases in all other countries, such as Spain, Germany, Australia, Japan and South America, were on the Polydor label in early 1975. The album was generally well received by music critics from leading magazines of the day. AllMusic journalist Craig Harris stated that "one of the first successful female singer-songwriters in England, de Paul has had an illustrious career" and lists this as one of her best albums. It was also de Paul's personal favourite album and she wrote on her music store website some years later "The Taste Me... Don't Waste Me album was a romantic collection of songs that I wrote and recorded as a relaxing, late night album", echoing earlier comments to the music press. The LP was listed as one of the best album releases of 1975 by journalist Judith Simons. It has stood the test of time in that it is listed as one of the top albums released in 1974 by online site "Best ever albums", as well as one of the top 1000 albums released in the 1970s.
"Storm in a Teacup" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker, recorded by the British group The Fortunes and released as a single in 1972.
"My Man and Me" is a song written, recorded and produced by the British female singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul for her second album, Taste Me... Don't Waste Me, and released as a single backed with de Paul's smoochy version of "Dancing on a Saturday Night" on 21 February 1975.
Tigers and Fireflies is an album recorded in 1978 and released by Lynsey de Paul in April 1979 on the Polydor record label. It was launched at a special event at the Mayfair Club in London, with de Paul looking similar to the 1940s film star Veronica Lake. The album was recorded at Long View Farm Studios with additional recording at Mediasound Studios, New York and produced by Rupert Holmes. In his 1986 biography, Justin de Villeneuve, de Paul's manager at the time wrote "I gave Rupert Holmes a call in New York. He agreed to see me if I flew to America. Polydor, with the prospect of the involvement with Holmes, agreed to up the budget". The collaboration between de Paul and Holmes on Tigers and Fireflies was mentioned on the Ray Shasho Show, when Shasho interviewed Holmes on his BBS radio show on 7 August 2018. The story behind the recording of the album was also discussed in the book Dervish Dust: The Life and Words of James Coburn. Speaking to Music Week about the album, Jim Cook said "Throw away all of your preconceived ideas about Lynsey de Paul".
"Love Bomb" is a song and title track from the album Love Bomb by Lynsey de Paul, written by de Paul and Barry Blue. It is listed in the Catalog of Copyright Entries held by the Library of Congress 1976. The song's lyrics is a call for love and peace. with yearning strings, pulsing beat and bass that propel this soulful song along until the inevitable exploding bomb sound effect, after which Lynsey's vocals go ever higher, "reaching for the stars above."
"If I Don't Get You The Next One Will" is a song written, recorded and produced by Lynsey de Paul and released in 1976 in the UK as her last single on Jet Records. The B-side of the single was another de Paul song and fan favourite "Season to Season". A longer version of the song was recorded as a track for the 1976 album Take Your Time, but the album was shelved as part of a dispute between de Paul and Arden, and when it was finally released on CD in 1990 in Japan as Before You Go Tonight, the single version was included. This humorous and tongue in cheek song relates many of de Paul's negative dating experiences. One well known muse for the song was former boyfriend, Ringo Starr, who missed a dinner date with de Paul. De Paul herself described the song as being about revenge, after Starr missed a dinner appointment with her because he fell asleep in his office. Stylistically, it was quite a departure from previous releases, with prominent use of synthesiser and a sparse arrangement that received positive reviews. At the time, the Record Mirror wrote "Cleverly constructed song with Lynsey's voice playing leap-frog over itself. Uptempo rhythm that winds itself all over the place, following the intricate vocal patterns."
Before You Go Tonight also known as Take Your Time is a Lynsey de Paul album recorded in 1976 for Jet Records, but shelved out of spite by then manager Don Arden, and not released until 1990. Then it appeared as a CD release in Japan on Century Records, and again on the Vivid Sound under licence from Trojan Records. The album was originally called Singer-Songwriter and was finally released on de Paul's music store as Take Your Time, albeit with a slightly different track listing. All of the songs were written by de Paul, except the amusing "You've Either Got It or You Ain't", which was co-written with David Jordan. The album was produced by de Paul. The track "If I Don't Get You The Next One Will" was released as a single in 1976 and this version is included. "My One and Only" is de Paul's version of a song recorded and released in 1975 by her label mates at the time, the British female vocal trio Bones.
"Sugar Me" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Green. The first version of this song to be released was recorded by de Paul as her first single on MAM Records in 1972. It was produced by Gordon Mills and the B-side was de Paul's version of "Storm in a Teacup", a song she had co-written and had been a hit for the Fortunes earlier that year.
"Martian Man" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul that was destined to be a track on her 1976 album Before You Go Tonight, but was shelved as part of a legal dispute with former manager Don Arden.
"You Give Me Those Feelings" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul, and produced by de Paul and Jon Kelly. It was released as a non-album single, with the B-side "Beautiful" also composed by de Paul, on Polydor in August 1977, as the follow up to the European hit single "Rock Bottom". The German and French releases of the single both had picture sleeves. The romantic song makes clever use of vocal overdubbing and has a false ending making the shorter version more radio friendly that the whole song, which clocks in at over four minutes. The song was play listed by a number of British radio stations. It is listed as one of the songs of 1977 in a German music database as one of the songs of the year 1977.
"Hollywood Romance" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and David Jordan. It was released as a single on Polydor Records on 20 October 1978 in a picture sleeve, almost six years to the day after the release of their last hit collaboration "Getting a Drag", and it was play-listed on BBC Radio 1. The record label for this single was unusual in that it was printed in silver instead of the usual Polydor red label. The release was announced in a full page advert "Hollywood Romance - a new single from a very special lady" published in Music Week. In Japan, it was released in February 1979 in the same picture sleeve cover with the title in Japanese added, plus the lyrics were included on the back cover. It was listed as a major release in Hong Kong. It was also released as a track on the 1978 BBC transcription album Servicio Latinoamericano de la BBC vol. 44 together with "Don't Take Love for Granted" by Lulu and "Got To Get You Into My Life" by Earth, Wind and Fire.
"House of Cards" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Barry Blue and is one of their most covered songs. It was first released as a single by Chris Kelly on the CBS label on 7 April 1972, credited as being written by Rubin and Green (Blue). The song was a radio hit in Italy, receiving multiple plays on national radio stations.
Into My Music - Anthology 1975-1979 is a digitally remastered double album, featuring songs written and performed by Lynsey de Paul, that was released on 18 March 2013 on Cherry Red's RPM Retrodisc label. All recordings have been remastered by de Paul and Simon Murphy from original tape sources and co-produced by de Paul and Mark Stratford. The album is packaged with photographs and memorabilia from de Paul's personal archive and text by Michael Robson.
Love Bomb is the fourth album released in 1975 by the British singer-songwriter Lynsey de Paul, and her second album released on Jet Records in the UK and Polydor in Germany, Australia and Japan. In the US and Canada, it was released in January 1976 on Mercury Records. The album was recorded at the Marquee Studios, London, England, produced by de Paul and arranged by Tony Hymas, with Terry Cox playing drums, John Dean percussion, Chris Rea guitar and Frank McDonald bass. The striking sleeve cover photo of de Paul in U.S. military style clothing was taken by Brian Aris.
"My One and Only" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and first recorded by the female vocal trio Bones. It was released as a single in 1974 in the UK on Jet Records, and on Polydor in France, Germany and Italy. The recording was produced by de Paul. The song is about a summer holiday romance and is influenced by the style of 1960s girl groups such as the Shangri-Las. Bones performed the song on British television as guests on the Granada TV programme, Rock On With 45, on 16 January 1975. The B-side of the single, “Baby Don’t Make Me Cry”, was a doo-wop sounding song co-written by de Paul and Barry Blue, and again it was produced by de Paul.
"Rhythm and Blue Jean Baby" is a song that was written and produced by Lynsey de Paul, and released in July 1975 as her third single on the newly designed yellow Jet Record label in the UK, as a follow up to the hit single "My Man and Me". It was released on Polydor in Belgium, France and Germany ; backed with another de Paul composition "Into My Music". The release of the single was also announced in the American music industry magazine Cashbox. The song as well as the lyrics and credits are listed on the Italian music resource "Rockol".
"Taking It On" is a song written by Lynsey de Paul and Ron Roker, and originally published by ATV Music. Although de Paul recorded her own demo version of the song in 1972, her version of the song was not released until 2013 on her Anthology CD album Sugar and Beyond. De Paul also arranged and produced this recording.
