Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
If I say I'll always stay by your side
Stupid things I say some night
Can you tell me I am wrong till I cry?
Tell me do you have the right?

[Verse 2]
And if I say that seas could never sweep me
Overboard and far away
You still say you wouldn't try to keep me
If I lost the will to stay

[Chorus]
You won't promise this will last much longer
Than the time it takes to stray
Your excuse is that my heart's much stronger
And some of your love has been drained away

[Verse 3]
I can't bear it when the tears fill your eyes
And I've said too much once more
Don't be angry now you must realise
My only fear's of losing something I adore

[Chorus]
Still can't understand the reasons why we cry
Seems the point is still so sore
Never mean to make you sad it's just that I
Fear you can't love as you did before
You won't promise this will last much longer
Than the time it takes to stray
Your excuse is that my heart's much stronger
And some of your love has been drained away

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 album

Eden (1984)

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Even SoEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Eden