Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Ben Watt

[Verse 1]
So here we are in Italy
With a sun hat and a dictionary
The air is warm, the sky is bright
Your arms are brown, you're sleeping well at night
So why does England call?
The hedgerows and town halls
After all, there'll soon be nothing left at all

[Verse 2]
If we were born outside of place and time
To make our choice, well this would be mine
To live and die under a sun that shines
But something pulls, something I can't define
Tells me England calls, whatever she's done wrong
Always calls, "This is where you belong"

[Chorus]
I'm lonesome for a place I know
Yes, I'm lonesome for a place I know

[Verse 3]
Oh but Florence you tempt me here to stay
Amidst your hills to while my years away
But your roots in soil lie, mine in paving stone
And I hate what it's become, but in my bones

[Chorus]
I'm lonesome for a place I know
Yes, I'm lonesome for a place I know
Why does England call?
I'm lonesome for a place I know
Why does England call?
I'm lonesome for a place I know
Yes, I'm lonesome for a place I know
Why does England call?
I'm lonesome for a place I know

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

Idlewild

From the album

Idlewild (1988)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Lonesome for a Place I KnowEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Idlewild