Birthday Number 1s: 1983 - Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home)

It will be nice when doing this causes me to reassess a singer and a song, and that is what is happening with

Wherever I Lay My Hat (That's My Home) - Paul Young

Although Paul Young did write songs, nearly all of his biggest hits were covers, and Wherever I Lay My Hat is, famously, written by the great Norman Whitfield, the great Barrett Strong and the grrrrrreat Marvin Gaye, and was originally performed by Gaye.

It was a b-side, not a hit song, and is, actually, quite an undistinguished record (though certainly the bones of a good song). Paul Young really makes something of it. Slows it down, sings the hell out of it. It struck me quite hard that despite joking about it down the years (with Morrissey and Young being amongst my go-to silly impressions), I really like his voice. In terms of all the blue-eyed soul singers coming out of Britain those days, from Boy George and George Michael to Tony Hadley and Robert Palmer, Young's is by far my favourite voice.

He didn't sustain success like some others, but he was a large deal at the time. He sang the first line of Band Aid ... doesn't get much bigger than that. I guess the fact that he wasn't a natural writer of hit songs went against him. Also, Rick Astley was a pretty straight like-for-like replacement in the public eye (but again, I think, a lesser singer).

Paul Young kept on having moderate hits in the 90s, and has stayed moderately, quietly famous and never made any kind of disgrace of himself in the public eye. I imagine if I'd seen him, say, playing mid-afternoon at Latitude in 2009, I'd have enjoyed that enormously.

There are two Paul Young song lyrics which lend themselves to adaptation - Senza una donna, I, quite nichely, change to Nkrumah Bonner, no more pain and no sorrow (Nkrumah Bonner being a West Indian cricketer), while Living in the love of the common people is endlessly adaptable, and ticks over in my head pretty much ever day ...

Going to the pub with Sir Paul McCartney ...

Getting in a fight with the boys from Busted ...

Running for the bus with Anita Brookner ...

Falling off a tree with Romano Prodi ...

you get the idea.

Anyway, good for you, Paul Young.