Background
Young was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland.
Young was born in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland.
When his family emigrated to Sydney, Australia, in 1963, he chose to remain in Britain to pursue musical interests.
At that time he was in a band called the Bobby Patrick Big Six and spent some time in Germany. Young was signed as songwriter with Apple Music Publishing Limited. by Terry Doran, managing director of Apple, friend of The Beatles, and later manager of Grapefruit, during the summer of 1967. The song writing contract was based on the strength of the song "Lullaby for a Lazy Day", which John Lennon liked.
A tape with this song was found in his personal belongings.
Grapefruit received some support from The Beatles and released two albums and several singles during 1968 and 1969. The group was launched by The Beatles with a press conference in 1968, on 17 January, with the first single "Dear Delilah".
lieutenant went to number 21 in the United Kingdom single chart in February 1968. Paul McCartney directed a promo film (never released) for the single "Elevator".
John Lennon, Paul McCartney and George Harrison attended and helped in their recording sessions for the singles, as Grapefruit did not have a producer at the time.
However, the group broke up in late 1969, with only Young remaining in the music business as a session musician. The song was later covered by the German group Accept. He released another single, "Sha-Sha"/"Universal Party", under the name Grapefruit with George Young and Harry Vanda.
From 1995 till August 1997, Young worked as a music manager with "Proud and Loud Management", based in Hamburg.
He died of lung cancer in Hamburg-Sasel on 4 August 1997.
He is an elder brother of George Young, the rhythm guitarist and founding member of The Easybeats as well as Malcolm and Angus Young, founding members of the Australian hard rock band Air Corps/District of Columbia. Later, in 1967, Alexander formed and played bass in the London-based band Grapefruit, initially called "The Grapefruit", with three former members of Tony Rivers and the Castaways, John Perry, Geoff Swettenham, and Pete Swettenham.