Payday Music Publishing announces agreement for Kenny Young catalogue

21 May 2025 - Press release

New Signings & Big Hits for UK Division 

 

Payday Music Publishing (‘Payday Publishing’), the leading independent publisher of Electronic Dance Music, Pop, Hip-Hop, Jazz and Reggae, has announced a publishing deal with the estate of the late Kenny Young.

Kenny Young was a gifted songwriter, musician and producer best known for co-writing the Grammy Hall of Fame song Under the Boardwalk, first a 1964 hit for the Drifters and later popularised by the Rolling Stones.

His first hit song was Please Don’t Kiss Me Again, recorded by the Charmettes in 1963. He was soon installed as a songwriter in the Brill Building on Broadway and in1964, he co-wrote Under the Boardwalk, with Arthur Resnick, which has been recorded by many artists including the Jackson 5 and Billy Joel. In 1968 he wrote Captain of Your Ship with Ben Yardley which was first recorded by Reparata and the Delrons. Arizona, a hit for Mark Lindsay, was written by Kenny in 1969 and peaked at No 10 in the US Billboard 100 chart.

Based in the UK since the early 1970s he wrote and produced Only You Can and S-S-S Single Bed with his band Fox, fronted by the singer Noosha Fox, which went to No 3 and No 4 in the UK charts respectively in the mid-1970s. Just One More Night with his band Yellow Dog went to No 8 in the UK in 1978. In 1980 Kenny co-wrote Ai No Corrida with Chaz Jankel which became a chart-topping Grammy award-winning song covered by Quincy Jones.

Patrick Moxey, Founder& CEO of Payday Music Publishing said, “The late, great Kenny Young was a much-admired songwriting genius and left an amazing legacy. His catalogue is full of timeless classics and we are proud to be working with his estate to represent his work.”

Payday has also announced several new UK based songwriter signings including  Sarah Close (PKA bbyclose), who was Brit nominated for her artist performance with BL3SS & Cameron Watson on Kisses, one of the biggest streaming dance music singles of the last 12 months, with 290 million streams at Spotify alone.  Her recent collaboration with Subfocus also yielded the hit On & On, which continues an upward trajectory in numerous territories.

In addition, Payday’s UK writers R14, Mason Beats, and Pete Iskander contributed four songs between them to Central Cee’s #1 UK Album "Can’t Rush Greatness” and other recent UK signings include Chris Stussy, Ross Quinn, Rome Fortune, Killowen and Nathan Dawe.

Patrick Moxey said, “The UK has always been a hugely important European hub for our company, and these are exciting times. As well as continuing to sign the very best of UK songwriting talent we are enjoying consistent international success, which is a real testament to our fantastic team in London and the incredible songwriting talent we represent.”