Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Everything But The Girl

[Chorus]
Darkness will trip, darkness will fall
Get no sleep on Salisbury Street
Mud on my shoes, sweat on my palms
Get no sleep on Salisbury Street

[Verse 1]
There is another time it could have been different
I know if it were you'd be there
Over the Pennines and out of the station
And finally up to a room

[Chorus]
A voice in my head and the cut won't heal
On Ambridge Walk in Salisbury Street
And what about her, well she nettles my thoughts
Hatred creeps down Salisbury Street (Yeah)

[Verse 2]
To gloat is as ugly as soaking yourself
In a wave of remorse
I shout on the shingle, soaked to thе skin
By a river that's taken its course

[Chorus]
To do good is so tеmpting it hurts
A tale complete from Salisbury Street
To do bad is as easy as sin
A tale complete from Salisbury Street
To do good is so tempting it hurts
A tale complete from Salisbury Street
To do bad is as easy as sin
A tale complete from Salisbury Street (Yeah)

[Outro]
To do good is so tempting it hurts
To do bad is as easy as sin
To do good is so tempting it hurts (Oh)
To do bad is as easy as, as sin

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

Easy As Sin (Version)Everything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Love Not Money