Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Mike Hedges Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
Come hell or high water
You just do as you please
Waste your time when you oughta
Be charming the birds from the trees
A voice straight from heaven
So you like to believe
Who cares if it's only
Your poor self you deceive?

[Bridge]
You look in the mirror
And what do you see?
Too much care and scheming
Too little beauty

[Verse 2]
Come hell or high water
You never will be
Goddess or a genius
A drunkard at twenty-three
And all that you yearn for
Is attention I guess
Come hell or high water
You deserve nothing less

[Verse 3]
Come hell or high water
You will stay off the rails
I won't try to change you
For God knows I would fail (I would fail)
And it's to the angels
That each day you pray
Come hell or high water
I know you will meet them someday

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.

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Everything But The Girl

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