The original from which the hit emerged

[Treppenwitz]

@EinsteinsHund

The song “Love Of The Common People” has an interesting history and became kind of a standard, covered by acts like the Everly Brothers, Wayne Newton, Waylon Jennings and many others. The biggest hit version (at least in Europe, in the US it only reached #45) was by Paul Young in 1982, also the first version that I became famiiar with.

I first knew the Nicky Thomas version - here it is:

Nicky Thomas 'Love Of The Common People' (official audio)

Included for completeness and because I always assumed (and wiki kinda suggests) that the Paul Young version was inspired by it.

In 1983, the singer Paul Young took “Love of the Common People” back into the UK chart reviving interest in Thomas’s version of the song that in turn resulted in Trojan reissuing it as a 12-inch single that included an extended remix version.

I never heard the original before - thank you for that - and was really surprised at how similar to it the Nicky Thomas version was.

j