John Paul Young – One Foot In Front 2025 MelodicRock Classics Remaster + Bonus, MP3+FLAC

MelodicRock Classics is absolutely thrilled to announce the signing of Australian music icon JOHN PAUL YOUNG for a remastered reissue of his classic 1983 album ‘One Foot In Front’.

‘One Foot In Front’ is the singer’s brilliant melodic rock driven album which remains one of Australia’s rarest CDs. It was only ever given one small disc pressing in 1992, where it was re-titled ‘The War Years’, featuring additional tracks from the original sessions, plus extended versions of several tracks. This is the first time it has been released officially on CD under its original title with all original artwork restored. The audio is remastered by MRC’s audio engineer JK Northrup in Sacramento, giving it a fresh new punch. The additional bonus tracks from ‘The War Years’ compilation have also been remastered and included.

John Paul Young, or JPY as he is affectionately known, is a stalwart of the Australian music scene, making his debut in 1969. In 1975 he delivered his first number one with the hit ‘Yesterday’s Hero’. In 1979 came ‘Love Is In The Air’, a song that would become a beloved anthem.
With a string of hit albums to his name, and dreams of breaking worldwide, John signed to the Australian branch of German label I.C. Records in 1983. Ambitions were high – he flew to Germany with American producer, composer and keyboard player John Capek to record this album. Capek, recently added to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, had a string of killer songs ready to record, many co-written with the AOR legend Marc Jordan and others with Frank Howson – a performer and songwriter himself, who was the head of I.C Records in Australia.
The result was a record ahead of its time that still sounds great today.

In March 1984; One Foot In Front was renamed ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ for the European market. It produced four singles including “Soldier of Fortune”, “War Games”, “L.A. Sunset” and “Call The Night”.

John Paul Young comments: “It was a unique time with the Berlin Wall still being an issue, working with John Capek was really a new experience, it was good to feel as if the time in the biz wasn’t all over even though everything didn’t quite work out the way we’d hoped. I also learned a lot about the frustrations of the people from the East Side from our engineer (the late) Thomas Stiehler, he was part of the road crew in a band that successfully escaped to the west.”
MelodicRock Classics boss Andrew McNeice had this to say: “I feel honoured and privileged to have gained the confidence of John, his management and principle artists John Capek and Frank Howson to finally allow this gem of an album to be restored to its original state, with a fresh remaster. ‘Soldier Of Fortune’ was an instant favourite when I first heard it back in 1983 and to this day remains one of my favourite ever Aussie songs. The whole album is one that has remained close to my heart over the years.”
Sadly Frank Howson passed away in 2024. But he was involved in the talks behind this release and was excited to see it happen. Taken from one of his messages comes this quote: “It was criminally underrated. We spent a fortune on it. But Aussie radio were resistant to supporting JPY’s comeback. Even after ‘Soldier of Fortune’ became a Top 10 hit. Go figure. But Juke magazine named it one of the Top 10 best albums of the year.”

John Paul Young ‘One Foot In Front’ remastered is limited to a 1000 unit pressing and will be released on July 26 worldwide.

Track Listing:
One Foot In Front:
01. War Games 3:40
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

02. She Made A Fool Out Of You 3:54
Written-By – Frank Howson, John Capek

03. System Overload 4:11
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

04. Call The Night 3:25
Written-By – Frank Howson, John Capek, John Paul Young

05. Soldier Of Fortune 4:32
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

06. Cryin’ Eyes 3:59
Written-By – John Paul Young, Warren Morgan

07. Body Heat 3:52
Written-By – John Capek, Leslie Smith, Marc Jordan

08. Love Is For Heroes 3:42
Written-By – Frank Howson, John Capek

09. Television Girl 4:40
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

10. L.A. Sunset 3:39
Written-By – Frank Howson, John Capek

Bonus Tracks:

11. The Sirens 4:05
Written-By – John Paul Young, Warren Morgan

12. War Games (Instrumental) 3:49
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

13. Blues Singer (Previously Unreleased) 3:59
Written-By – Alex Burns

14. Pasadena (Previously Unreleased) 3:47
Written-By – David Hemmings, George Young, Harry Vanda

15. Down On Down On Down (Previously Unreleased) 3:59
Written-By – Beeb Birtles, Frank Howson

16. Soldier Of Fortune (Extended Mix) 5:10
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan

17. War Games (Extended Mix) 5.44
Written-By – John Capek, Marc Jordan