Billy Paul - A Profile

Paul Williams (1 Dec 1934 - 24 Apr 2016), better known as Billy Paul, would be celebrating his 88th birthday today. The song immediately associated with him is his #1 hit "Me And Mrs Jones" from 1972 on Philadelphia International Records.

A native Philadelphian, he was raised on his mothers jazz records and states Nat King Cole as an early influence along with Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Dina Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Carmen McCrae and Nancy Wilson as well as Nina Simone, Johnny Mathis and Sam Cooke.

At the age of 16 he performed at Club Harlem in Philadelphia for a week, on the same bill as Charlie Parker, and has never forgotten his words of encouragement.

Paul's first single was delivered in Apr 1952, aged 17, on Jubilee Records, a full 20 years before he had his first hit record with "Me And Mrs Jones"

He released a total of 11 albums for PIR (and associated labels Gamble and Neptune) between 1968-1979. Only another two studio albums materialised after he left the company, "Lately" (1985) and "Wide Open" (1988).

Having released two singles for Jubilee in 1952, another on Finch in 1960 (he had been drafted into the military in between and was stationed in Germany with none other than Elvis Presley!) and one on New Dawn in 1966, Paul was one of the first signings of Gamble and Huff who had seen him perform at a jazz club and signed him to their newly established Gamble label. He recorded his debut album of jazz covers "Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club" released in 1968 on Gamble.

His classic "Me And Mrs Jones" came from his fourth album "360 Degrees of Billy Paul" after his first, above, "Ebony Woman" (1970) and "Going East" (1971) so he had more than paid his dues before obtaining his first taste of singles success, although the previous two albums did well on the R&B charts ("Ebony Woman" #12 and "Going East" #42). The flip side to the single was a very good cover of the Elton John and Bernie Taupin hit "Your Song" and was the label's first #1 hit. It earned him a Grammy award for Best R&B Vocal Performance, Male at the 15th annual Grammy Awards in March 1973. He was in good company as Aretha Franklin won the female award for "Young, Gifted And Black" and The Temptations won the group award for "Papa Was A Rollin' Stone" which also scooped the only other two R&B awards for Best R&B Song and Best R&B Instrumental Performance.

The label made a big faux pas with his next single release with "Am I Black Enough for You?" which was too political for the masses and only reached #79 Hot 100 which killed the momentum of his smash hit. Paul himself was against releasing it but the label persisted. He wanted to release the superb "Brown Baby" or "I'm Just A Prisoner" neither of which saw a US single release, although "Brown Baby" was released in the UK to follow up his hit but didn't chart and has been a firm favourite of his ever since first hearing it on one of those K-Tel type budget compilations, I think it might have been "Superbad"? (Having just checked it was "Black Explosion" (1974))

Only two further singles crossed over to Billboard Hot 100, "Thanks For Saving My Life" (#37 1974) and "Let's Make A Baby" (#83 1976) (another song that caused controversy!) and only two of his other R&B charting singles made the R&B Top 50.

Album Discography

1968 - Feelin' Good at the Cadillac Club

1970 - Ebony Woman

1971 - Going East

1972 - 360 Degrees of Billy Paul

1973 - War of the Gods

1974 - Live in Europe

1975 - Got My Head on Straight

1975 - When Love is New

1976 - Let 'Em In

1977 - Only the Strong Survive

1979 - First Class

1985 - Lately

1988 - Wide Open

Here's playlist of 45 tracks cherry picked from his albums.

My personal Top 10 in no particular order would be:

Brown Baby

Me And Mrs Jones

Your Song

Let The Dollar Circulate

Be Truthful To Me

Let's Make A Baby

People Power

America (We Need The Light)

Bring The Family Back

Sooner Or Later

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