Paul Nicholas was born Paul Oscar Beuselinck on 3 December 1944 in Peterborough into a showbiz family, as his father, Oscar Beuselinck, a former MI6 agent, became a highly esteemed entertainment and show business solicitor in the 60's. He began his pop career as early as 1960, adopting the stage name Paul Dean and forming Paul Dean & The Dreamers, who were booked to support The Savages, the backing band for the British rocker Screaming Lord Sutch. It was here that Sutch first noticed the young Nicholas, who was soon to become vocalist and pianist with his band, but before that he released two singles, one as Paul Dean And The Thoughts and the other as just Paul Dean. After taking a new stage name, Oscar, he began a long association with the Australian-born entrepreneur Robert Stigwood, signing to Stigwood's Reaction Records and releasing four singles for the label, the first of which 'Club Of Lights', scraped into the lower reaches of the Radio London Fab Forty chart. His second single as Oscar was a version of a Pete Townshend song 'Join My Gang', which The Who never recorded, and his third was a novelty song called 'Over The Wall We Go', which was written by a young David Bowie. After settling on the stage name Paul Nicholas he found success in the UK in musicals, beginning with the leading role of Claude in 'Hair', before winning the title role in the original London production of 'Jesus Christ Superstar'. In 1970 he released a single under his own name, with 'Freedom City' being a self-penned protest song about apartheid, and this was followed by one last single for Polydor in 1971 before he took a break from the pop scene, returning five years later for a short-lived but high-profile pop career, earning three top 20 hits with 'Reggae Like It Used To Be', 'Dancing With The Captain', and 'Grandma's Party'. Following these singles he released two albums in 1977 and 1978, before landing the role of Vince Pinner in the hugely successful sitcom 'Just Good Friends', which was the part for which he will be most fondly remembered. He later returned to the stage, playing numerous roles on screen in both movie and television projects, and most recently could be seen playing Gavin Sullivan in 'Eastenders'. If Nicholas is remembered at all as a singer these days, it is usually for those three hits singles from 1976, but like many artists before him he paid his dues in his early years, and in this case some of those early songs are as notable for their writers as for being fine pop songs in their own right, with Nicholas writing many of his singles and b-sides himself under his real name of Beuselinck.
01 You Don't Own Me (single by Paul Dean And The Thoughts 1965)
02 Hole In The Head (b-side of 'You Don't Own Me')
03 She Can Build A Mountain (single by Paul Dean And The Savages 1966)
04 Club Of Lights (single by Oscar 1966)
05 Waking Up (b-side of 'Club Of Lights')
06 Join My Gang (single by Oscar 1966)
07 A Day Gone By (b-side of 'Join My Gang')
08 Holiday (single by Oscar 1967)
09 Over The Wall We Go (single by Oscar 1967)
10 Every Day Of My Life (b-side of 'Over The Wall We Go')
11 Open Up The Skies (single by Oscar 1968)
12 Wild Ones (b-side of 'Open Up The Skies')
13 Where Do I Go (single 1968)
14 Freedom City (single 1970)
15 Run Shaker Life (b-side of 'Freedom City')
16 Lamp Lighter (b-side of 'The Word Is Beautiful' 1971)
