Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Hank Cochran Harlan Howard

Producer: Mike Hedges Everything But The Girl

I fall to pieces each time I see you again
I fall to pieces, how can I be just your friend

You want me to act like we've never kissed
You want me to forget, pretend we've never met
And I've tried, I've tried but I haven't yet
You walk by and I fall to pieces

I fall to pieces each time someone speaks your name
I fall to pieces, time only adds to the flame

You tell me to find someone else to love
Someone who'll love me too the way you used to do
But each time I go out with someone new
You walk by and I fall to pieces
You walk by and I fall to pieces

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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I Fall to PiecesEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

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