Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
Narrow streets breed narrow minds
And care for kin but not for kind
It's a short hop to a long weekend
When every move you apprehend
You never find room to find your feet
To walk out of these avenues
Your pockets are lined with promises
When did you promise ever pay for shoes?

[Verse 2]
Count coal trucks by the line
And raise your glasses one more time
'Cause Billy has gone off to war
God knows what he's fighting for
Wartime will make him a man
Work that one out if you can
A hero's grave is six feet deep
Not room enough for all his friends

[Bridge]
And she can scrub the step but it will never gleam
If he did she'd smash the dream
And they've held the world too long
But dreams are what you wake up from

[Verse 3]
Father was a fighter too
The only way to jump the queue
Boxing clever, times were tough
But will that ever be enough?
He never found room to find his feet
To walk out of these avenues
His pockets were lined with promises
When did a promise ever pay for shoes? (Yeah)
When did a promise ever pay for shoes?

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

Love Not Money

From the album

Love Not Money (1985)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Ballad of the TimesEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Love Not Money