Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
What I get from you I sometimes steal
When I let belief invade what I should feel
Still I do believe that men are fools
And you don't always escape that rule
But this time there will be no fight
For this time you are in the right
And even I can see
So heaven help me

[Verse 2]
I only want the world to call my own
And a bright shiny hearth to call my home
But when you give me love I don't deserve
I wonder how I have the nerve
To number you amongst the ones
That I call every name under the sun
Unjust I must be
So heaven help me

[Bridge]
And all the things I yearn to possess
When they fall into my hands
I could not want them less

[Verse 3]
And are you supposed to smile and say
It didn't matter anyway?
And if you are a fool you'd be
To shrug off thoughtless cruelty
If goodness is wrong
In heaven you will never belong
And I'll never fall on my knees
And say heaven help me please
Heaven help me please
Heaven help me please
Heaven help me

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

Heaven Help MeEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Love Not Money