Everything But The Girl

Released: October 16, 1995

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Everything But The Girl John Coxon

I step off the train
I'm walking down your street again
And past your door
But you don't live there anymore

It's years since you've been there
Now you've disappeared somewhere
Like outer space
You've found some better place

And I miss you
- like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you
- like the deserts miss the rain

Could you be dead?
You always were two steps ahead
Of everyone
We'd walk behind while you would run

I look up at your house
And I can almost hear you shout
Down to me
Where I always used to be

And I miss you -
- like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you
- like the deserts miss the rain

Back on the train
I ask why did I come again
Can I confess
I've been hanging around your old address?

And the years have proven
To offer nothing since you moved
You're long gone
But I can't move on

And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain

I step off the train
I'm walking down your street again
And past your door
But you don't live there anymore

It's years since you've been there
Now you've disappeared somewhere
Like outer space
You've found some better place

And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain
(and I miss you)
And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain
And I miss you -
Like the deserts miss the rain
(the deserts miss the rain)
Like the deserts miss the rain
(like the deserts miss the rain)
Like the deserts miss the rain

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.

From the albums

Missing (The Full Remix EP) (1995)
Like the Deserts Miss the Rain (2002)
Anthems 90s (2012)
NOW That’s What I Call 90s Pop [US] (2017)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Missing (Todd Terry Remix)Everything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl