Everytime You Go Away

Album: The Secret Of Association (1985)
Charted: 4 1
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Songfacts®:

  • This was written by Daryl Hall and originally recorded by Hall & Oates for the duo's 1980 album, Voices, but was not released as a single; Young's version became a hit nearly five years later. In the October 16, 2009 issue of Entertainment Weekly, Daryl Hall listed this as one of his favorite Hall & Oates songs and explained: "Paul Young had a pop hit with it a few years after we released it. It's just one of those songs. I feel very proud of its craftsmanship."
  • This was the biggest hit for Young. He contributed to Band Aid in 1984 and had hits with covers of R&B classics "Oh Girl" and "What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted."
  • This song became one of the biggest hits with a grammar gaffe in the title. "Everytime" is not a word, so it should read "Every Time You Go Away." Young could point the finger at songwriter Daryl Hall or just enjoy the company of other grammatically questionable songs.
  • The video was one of the first directed by Nick Morris, who soon after did the iconic video for Europe's "The Final Countdown." In our interview with Morris, he explained: "Paul Young, I'd seen him loads of times as a student because he used to play all these club nights at universities and so on. I knew he was a really good live, sweaty, rock and roll guy, and I wanted to capture that. That's why we used the slow motion, that's why we used the backstage stuff."

    Creating a video for a mid-tempo song that showcases the artist was not an easy task, but the slow motion, desaturated look with lots of candid shots worked very well. This style was copied by a number of other artists, notably Bon Jovi in their video for "Wanted Dead Or Alive."
  • Clay Aiken covered this on his 2006 album, A Thousand Different Ways.
  • Young's success with the song didn't produce any sour grapes for Daryl Hall, who credited him with tapping into the commercial potential he failed to see the first time around. Hall told Music Connection: "I never thought of it any other way than the way it was 'til Paul Young did it ... I was just doin' a kind of gospel/soul song; that was all I had in mind for it. I was really surprised to hear the production they did because it kept the elements but commercialized it - made it sound like a pop record."
  • Hall and Young performed this as an extended duet at a New York show in 1985.
  • In a 2014 Songfacts interview, Daryl Hall said he still counts this as one of his favorite covers of a Hall & Oates song.
  • The Hall & Oates version of this song is featured in the 2009 romantic comedy The Rebound, starring Catherine Zeta-Jones and Justin Bartha.

Comments: 10

  • Jim from Long Beach, CaYeah, that is the pat of the film that gets me too. This is a great song, it brings me back to the mid-80's which was part of my life when time stood still. Thanks.
  • John from Grand Island, NyIn the final scene of the John Hughes classic 1987 comedy "Planes, Trains and Automobiles" this song is played (sung by another artist). No matter how many times I watch that movie (in the hundreds now), I still get misty during that scene as the entire movie comes together and you find out that John Candy's character (Del Griffith) is homeless after the death of his wife whom he dearly loved. It is a scene that is wonderfully acted out by a truly underappreciated Candy. Sadly John Hughes life ended this past summer.
  • Slav from Warsaw, PolandThis a lovely song. I think that all people are run by their desires so they can see in it what they want or rather what their defects are. If you like canabis or other drugs, you wiil read it says about it. If you are a drunkard, you find it talking about abuse of spirit.If you tend to be a sort 'young female buds' lover, you acnowledge it talking about sex. So it is not the song that says about different evils, but perverted human minds which can notice things in accordance with their curved desires. It is as simple as that.
  • Lee from Euclid, OhThis has long been one of my favorite songs in the sense that I loved hearing it despite even when it got so much radio airplay when it was first considered a *hit*, that you'd normally tire of listening to it.
    I still feel the same way about it today.
  • Kal from Worthing, EnglandJust another okay UK copy of a great song written by an American.
  • Joshua from Twin Cities, MnCorrection: The "other" Paul Young died from a heart attack, not an aneurysm.
  • Joshua from Twin Cities, MnInterestingly, at about the same time this song charted in the U.S., a different singer named Paul Young also charted as a member of Mike & the Mechanics with "All I Need Is A Miracle". That Paul Young would record five albums with Mike & the Mechanics before dying of a brain aneurysm in 2000.
  • Anne from Atlanta, GaThey play this song at the end of the movie, "Planes, Trains, and Automobiles," when Steve Martin and John Candy finally make it home.
  • Tony (joycey) from Liverpool, EnglandWhile this was his biggest international hit Paul had a No1 hit in the UK with his third single 'wherever I lay my hat' in 1983
  • Geoff from San Francisco, CaThe bass player on Paul's version is Pino Palladino, and it's one of the most recognizable fretless bass in music.
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