Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

[Verse 1]
What is it that I think I need?
Is there love in me that wants to be freed?
Or is it selfishness and ego
We carry with us everywhere that we go?
This feeling that life's incomplete
Do you feel that too?
Do you want what I want?

[Chorus]
And if I should start to cry
And I can't begin to tell you why
And I stumble when I begin
It's cause I don't understand anything

[Verse 2]
And people say that we're so close
How can there be something that I don't know
Oh but even though I share your bed
Baby, I don't get inside your head
This feeling of some mystery
Do you feel that too?
Do you know what I mean?

[Chorus]
And if I should start to cry
And I can't begin to tell you why
And I stumble when I begin
It's cause I don't understand anything

[Bridge]
Watch me stumble, watch me slip
My fingers loose their grip
Now I'm down on my knees
Is that what you wanted to see?
What is it that I think I need?
What is it that I think I need?

[Chorus]
And if I should start to cry
And I can't begin to tell you why
And I stumble when I begin
It's cause I don't understand anything

[Outro]
You reach for me from miles away
You reach for me from miles away

Originating at the turn of the 1980s as a leader of the lite-jazz movement, Everything but the Girl became an unlikely success story more than a decade later, emerging at the vanguard of the fusion between pop and electronica.

Founded in 1982 by Hull University students Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, the duo took their name from a sign placed in the window of a local furniture shop, which claimed “for your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl.” At the time of their formation, both vocalist Thorn and songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Watt were already signed independently to the Cherry Red label; Thorn was a member of the sublime Marine Girls, while Watt had issued several solo singles and also collaborated with Robert Wyatt.

Everything but the Girl debuted in 1982 with a samba interpretation of Cole Porter’s “Night and Day”; the single was a success on the U.K. independent charts, but the duo nonetheless went on hiatus as Thorn recorded a solo EP, A Distant Shore, while Watt checked in with the full-length North Marine Drive in 1983. EBTG soon reunited to record a cover of the Jam’s “English Rose” for an NME sampler; the track so impressed former Jam frontman Paul Weller that he invited the duo to contribute to the 1984 LP Cafe Bleu, the debut from his new project, the Style Council.

more tracks from the album

Amplified Heart

From the album

Amplified Heart (1994)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

I Don’t Understand AnythingEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Amplified Heart