Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
You take the name of a man you hardly know
And then you grow up and that name has to go
Married with kids and they don't want to know
About the dreams you had let go
You're still waiting for a knight in shining armour
To steal you against your will
And while you're waiting and doing no harm
You know there's plenty of time to kill

[Chorus]
And when you claim you wouldn't change a day
Makes me wonder where I went astray
Happy with things that leave me tired
We're as unlike as frost and fire

[Verse 2]
And now yourself you start to see in me
Pictures of things which you could've been
Torches I find I am bearing for you
When you know you could've carried them too
We give up so easily
What little they leave us to lose
And if I didn't have the fire to struggle
I could freeze in your shoes

[Chorus]
When I say I couldn't live that way
You must wonder where I went astray
Happy with things that leave me tired
We're as unlike as frost and fire

[Instrumental]

[Chorus]
When I say I couldn't live that way
You must wonder where I went astray
Happy with things that leave me tired
We're as unlike as frost and fire

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

Eden (1984)
Everything But the Girl (1984)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Frost and FireEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Eden