Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
If you ever feel the time
To drop me a loving line
Maybe you should just think twice
I don't wait around on your advice

[Chorus]
You tell me I can go this far but no more
Try to show me heaven and then slam the door
You offer shelter at a price much too dear
And your kind of love's the kind that soon disappears

[Verse 2]
So don't brag how you have changed
And everything's been rearranged
I thought all that was over and done
But I still get the same from each and every one

[Chorus]
Being kind is just a way to keep me under your thumb
And I can cry because that's something we've always done
You tell me I'm free of the past now and all those lies
Then offer me the same thing in a different guise

[Trumpet Solo]

[Chorus]
You tell me I can go this far but no more
Try to show me heaven and then slam the door
You offer shelter at a price much too dear
And your kind of love's the kind that soon disappears

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

Eden

From the albums

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Each and Every OneEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Eden