Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
Well I hate to have to tell you this
But there are pigeons in the attic room
Where you left me spent and gasping that afternoon
And where the floorboards left their splinters
And you left me so soon

[Verse 2]
Pardon me, I'm drunk again
And when I'm drunk I make no sense
But I crack more jokes and that's my self-defence
You caused me to think
And I thought about what I had home without you
You drove me to drink
And I never had the courtesy to thank you

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

Pigeons in the Attic RoomEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Love Not Money