The Girl That Paul Built

Originally published June 2014

When Paul Weller broke up The Jam in 1982 they were the biggest band in Britain which gave him a lot of clout to do what he wanted. Besides forming The Style Council, he had a go at being a pop mogul by starting his own record label Respond, and put an ad in Smash Hits looking for a girl singer to join this Motown-wannabe of his. One of the young hopefuls who answered that ad was 17-year-old Essex girl Tracie Young — or Tracie! as she was initially known on her record sleeves – who made her singing debut on The Jam’s final single “Beat Surrender”.

Like Joanna and Susan in The Human League, Tracie was an “ordinary” teenage girl with the appeal of the pretty local lass who had a Saturday job in Boot’s and danced around her handbag at the High Street disco in the evenings. On Top of The Pops she looked like the siren of the Sixth Form in her denim jacket, pencil skirt, and white high heels and was voted “Most Fanciable Female” in the 1983 Smash Hits readers’ poll. While you probably wouldn’t attempt to chat up Kim Wilde at a disco — too cooly Bardot glam — Tracie was a girl you actually might fancy your chances with.

But she was no shrinking violet pop puppet, and had a row with Weller over his production of her records, especially “The House That Jack Built” which he sped up and put a lot of tinny synths on. He wanted her to sound like a modern pop star and not, in his words, “a little soul girl”. While I do agree with Weller, his production was a bit naff but that didn’t stop it and her next single from being hits.

Unfortunately the other acts on Respond like The Questions and A Craze didn’t do so well, and by the time Tracie’s debut album Far From the Hurting Kind came out in 1984 she wasn’t having hits either and it only got to #64 in the charts which is a shame as it’s a terrific album containing some great singles like this one.

Download: Soul’s On Fire (12″ version) – Tracie (mp3)

With the lack of hits Weller lost interest in Respond and the label went belly up in 1986 leaving Tracie at Polydor where sadly her second album No Smoke Without Fire was shelved and not released until 2014, and more good singles like “Invitation” (which she wrote herself) did nothing on the charts either.

Download: Invitation – Tracie Young (mp3)

Pop career over by the time she was 21, Tracie had a second life as a radio presenter. Nice to know that she didn’t become some pop casualty because some of us are still carrying a little torch for her.

2019 update: I have to note that she follows me on Twitter now. Be still my beating heart.