Yesterday's Hero (John Paul Young song)

"Yesterday's Hero" is a pop song sung by John Paul Young. The song was written by George Young and Harry Vanda and it became Young's only worldwide hit in 1975, peaking at No. 8 on the Australian charts and No. 1 in South Africa. In the United States, the song peaked at No. 42 on the Billboard Hot 100 and spend 27 weeks on the adult contemporary chart, his only US top 40 hit.

Overview

His next single was "Yesterday's Hero", which was released in March 1975, a song about the fleeting nature of pop stardom which clearly drew on Vanda & Young's own experiences as former teen idols.^[1][2][16] The single shot into the national charts in April and gave Young his first top ten hit,^[10] reaching No. 8 on the Australian singles chart^[10] and staying at No. 1 on the Melbourne charts for six weeks before being replaced by Hush's "Boney Maroney". The single sold strongly in the United States, where it reached No. 44 on the Cash Box Top 100 in February 1976.^[17] It was subsequently covered by the Bay City Rollers. One of the key factors in the Australian success of "Yesterday's Hero" was the film clip made to promote it, which enabled the song to be given heavy exposure on Countdown, which had just switched to its new one-hour Sunday evening format, following the official start of colour TV broadcasting on 1 March 1975.^[2][18][19] Young's debut performance on Countdown had him miming "Yesterday's Hero" while dressed in a sailor's suit surrounded on an island stage with a studio audience of screaming teen girls.^[20] He was dragged off the stage three times by audience members and the microphone cord was ripped out but the song continued uninterrupted.^[20] ABC TV producer, Michael Shrimpton believes his show, Countdown, played a big part in making "Yesterday's Hero" and Young a teen pop success.^[18]

Track listing

1. Yesterday's Hero 3:43
2. The Next Time 3:30

Credits

• Produced by Vanda & Young
• Written by Harry Vanda and George Young

Weekly charts

References