He was born Paul Williams, but he was better known us as Billy Paul from Pennsylvania USA. He was famously sacked from Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes for not dancing during performances.
Billy was a personal friend to the late Marvin Gaye and would often refer to each other as brothers.
In the UK, his first single was in 1972 was the famous Me and Mrs Jones reaching No.12 and No.1 in the States and won him a deserved Grammy too.
Billy Paul died in April 2016 aged 81.
From Wikipedia
The gold album and platinum single broke the artist on world charts, including the United Kingdom where the single entered the Top 20 of the UK Singles Chart reaching number 12 in early 1973 In the years since then, the song has been covered numerous times, most notably by Freddie Jackson in 1992 and Michael Bublé in 2007. Paul recalled the Grammy win and the song's overall success: "Oh man! I was up against Ray Charles, I was up against Curtis Mayfield, I was up against Isaac Hayes. I was in the Wilberforce University in Ohio, I had to go do a homecoming – my wife and her mother went. And when I see Ringo Starr call my name, I said Ohhh... Yeah... The most sobering thing is to have a number one record across the whole entire world in all languages. It’s a masterpiece, it’s a classic."The song was PIR's first No. 1. In addition, the label was enjoying considerable success with their other artists including the O'Jays and Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes. Paul remembered the atmosphere at the label: "It was like a family full of music. It was like music round the clock, you know."
Billy Paul - Me and Mrs. Jones | The story behind the song
The singles that followed did not even make the top thirty in the UK, but they were still classics. These included Thanks For Saving My Life.
