Everything But The Girl

Released: May 6, 1996

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Ben Watt

[Verse 1]
You never knew the teenage me
And you wouldn't believe the things you didn't see
Some pretty, some ugly
And the lovely mirrorball
Reflected back them all
Every triumph, every fight
Under disco light

[Chorus]
Come on girl, it's alright
Come on girl, it's alright now
Come on girl, it's gonna be alright now

[Verse 2]
Well I guess some boys adored me
But the one I loved ignored me
And caused me in the end to murder my best friend
And though I got her letter, it never did get better
And I got out of my head
Then I joined a band instead

[Chorus]
Come on girl, it's alright
Come on girl, it's alright now
Come on girl, it's gonna be alright now

[Bridge]
Some good times I remember
My birthday that September
We lay down on the lawn
And counted until dawn
The stars that we lay under
And is he still, I wonder, the fairest of them all
Mirror, Mirrorball
Mirrorball

[Chorus]
Come on girl, it's too late
Come on girl, it's too late now
Come on girl, let it all go
Come on girl, it's too late now
Come on girl, it's gonna be alright
Come on girl, it's never gonna be alright
It's too late now
Let it all go
'Cause it's never gonna be alright

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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