Billy Paul

Billy Paul is one of those soul voices I keep returning to because he refused to play it safe. "Me and Mrs. Jones" could have made him a one-note hitmaker, but the way he leaned into moral discomfort and then later folded electronic and socially conscious ideas into War of the Gods tells me he was a restless artist, not just a crooner. There's a worldly intelligence in his phrasing, the kind you sense came from somewhere deeper than the charts. Philadelphia soul gave us plenty of stars, yet Paul's warmth and willingness to risk strangeness keep him singular to me.

Name (English)

Billy Paul

Name (Japanese)

ビリー・ポール

Reading

びりー・ぽーる

Born

December 1, 1934 – April 24, 2016

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Sagittarius / Dog

Origin

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Occupation

singer

University

Temple University

• Official sitehttps://billyp7.wixsite.com/soul-artist
• Wikipedia (English)https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy%20Paul
• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%93%E3%83%AA%E3%83%BC%E3%83%BB%E3%83%9D%E3%83%BC%E3%83%AB
• Wikidatahttps://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q863212

Tags

• Pennsylvania
• singer

Last updated

2026-06-21

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.