Everything But The Girl

Released: September 30, 1991

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Phil Ramone

[Verse 1]
I was alone thinking I was just fine
I wasn't looking for anyone to be mine
I thought love was just a fabrication
A train that wouldn't stop at my station
Home alone, that was my consignment
Solitary confinement
So when we met I was skirting around you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you

[Chorus]
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you honey
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you baby, oh no
I didn't know I was looking for love
I didn't know I was looking for love

[Verse 2]
'Cause there you stood, and I would, oh I wonder
Could I say how I felt and not be misunderstood?
A thousand stars came into my system
I never knew how much I had missed them
Slap on the map of my heart you landed
I was coy but you made me candid
And now the planets circle around you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you

[Chorus]
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you baby
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you baby
I didn't know I was looking for love
I didn't know I was looking for love

[Verse 3]
So we build from here with love the foundation
In a world of tears, one consolation
And now you're here, there's a full brass band
Playing in me like a wonderland
And if you left I would be two foot small
And every tear would be a waterfall
Soundless, boundless, I surround you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you

[Bridge]
I just didn't know

[Chorus]
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
(I just didn't know)
I didn't know I was looking for love (I just didn't know)
I didn't know I was looking for love (Until I found you baby)
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
(Not 'til I found you)
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you baby, oh no
I didn't know I was looking for love
I didn't know I was looking for love (Until I found you)

[Outro]
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
I didn't know I was looking for love
I didn't know I was looking for love (Until I found you)
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
I didn't know I was looking for love until I found you
I didn't know I was looking for love
I didn't know I was looking for love

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

I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love - EP

From the albums

I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love - EP (1993)
Worldwide (Deluxe Edition) (2013)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for LoveEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love - EP