The Young Idea

This UK duo featured Tony Cox (b. 10 November 1945, London, England) and Douglas Ugo Granville Allesandro MacRae-Brown (b. 17 April 1947, Florence, Italy). MacRae-Brown, a contemporary of Jonathan King at Charterhouse Public School, met Cox at university. The duo then forged a songwriting partnership and, having committed several demos to tape, hawked the finished product around London’s Denmark Street-based publishers. Their talent secured a management and recording contract and the duo made their debut as the Young Idea in June 1966. They completed several singles before achieving a UK Top 10 hit the following year with a reading of the Beatles’ song ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’. The pair achieved a higher profile with non-original material, including the Hollies’ ‘A Peculiar Situation’ and several poppy creations by Les Reed and Barry Mason. However, the Young Idea were unable to repeat the success of their lone chart entry.