Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Robin Millar

[Verse 1]
Do you want to get on in this cowering country now?
Do you want to get on, get on, get on
Or would you be happy just to get by?
The small thoughts of a small town girl
Grew up and wanted to change the world
Will heaven echo back my plea
Or cast it as a curse on me?

[Verse 2]
Do you want to get on in this beautiful country girl?
Listen hard to what the big folks say
And you'll believe anything
If you believe what they say of this world
From the orchard to foundry
From farms to the city night
Everyone cracks if the price is right
Ideals soon begin to fail
God must know by now
This love is not for sale, hey
This love is not for sale

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)

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This Love (Not for Sale)Everything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Love Not Money