Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Ben Watt

[Verse 1]
Born on a stage
Undersize and underage
But when she sang good
Mama said she could
Sing the world away
She made the shopgirls cry
They said, "That woman's life
Is tragic and pathetic
And just like mine"

[Chorus]
Can you sleep without the light?
Well hang out the flags tonight

[Verse 2]
It was Judy Garland who
Did all your suffering for you
Slept alone so you could
Stay home and feel blue
But she cried, "Look at me
I'm sad and you're happy
Yes, I'm great
And you're second rate
But I wish that I could be

[Chorus]
Sleeping without the light
Hanging out the flags tonight"

[Bridge]
Don't tamper with the clock, my dear
Romance has been dead for years

[Chorus]
Can you sleep without the light?
Oh, hang out the flags tonight
Can you sleep without the light?
Oh, hang out the flags tonight

[Outro]
What went wrong with my life?
What went wrong with my life?

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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Everything But The Girl

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