Everything But The Girl

Released: October 15, 1996

Songwriter: Gene Lees Antônio Carlos Jobim

Producer: Ben Watt

Um cantinho, um violão
Esse amor, uma cançao
Pra fazer feliz já que se ama

Muita calma pra pensar
E ter tempo pra sonhar
Da janela vé-se o Corcovado
O Redentor, que lindo

Quero a vida sempre assim
Com vocé perto de mim
Até o apagar da velha chama

E eu, que era triste
Descrente desse mundo
Ao encontrar vocé eu conheci
O que é a felicidade, meu amor

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

Red Hot + Rio

From the albums

Everything But The Girl popular songs

CorcovadoEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Red Hot + Rio