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.
• In a memorable moment at the 1986 Prince's Trust Rock Gala at Wembley, George Michael joined Paul Young for an impromptu rendition of "Every Time You Go Away."
  
  Despite scheduling conflicts, Michael was determined to participate, rearranging his commitments to appear at Wembley Arena. With a mere 10 minutes of rehearsal, the duet became a highlight of the event, with the pair sounding like they'd practiced it for days.