Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Mike Hedges Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
This time you went just a little too far
Now I don't mind picking you up from some bar
And I'm used to dealing with the ways of most men
But I won't come and get you from the jailhouse again

[Verse 2]
Now I've sat and watched men fall drunk on the floor
Just like my mother and her ma before
And I was sixteen before I realised
That men could walk upright and open their eyes

[Bridge]
Gin, whisky, don't bother me none
But you're so darn proud of the things that you've done
If you're such a man with such sorrows to drown
Well how come there's always some girl
Picks you up when you fall down? (Fall down, fall down)

[Verse 3]
So you go on home and get your guitar
Write some more songs about draining the bar
And if I'm so wise why don't I show you the door?
Cause you make me laugh
And maybe that's what God made men for

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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Baby, the Stars Shine Bright

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Baby, the Stars Shine Bright (1986)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Draining the BarEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Baby, the Stars Shine Bright