Everything But The Girl

Producer: Ben Watt

This temperamental side
The one you say that you can't hide
D' you ever see yourself -
The way it looks to someone else?
This temperamental trick
The one you say you can't predict
You're like an empty cup
Forgive me if I don't wait up
I don't get where you're coming from -
What is real and what's put on
What has stayed and what has gone
How long will this thing go on and on?

I don't want you to love me
I don't want you to love me

You're like an empty cup
But I can't fill you up
What planet are you on?
Not the same one I am from
Do I just waste my time?
You pour your heart on mine
You say it screws you up
Forgive me if I don't wait up
I don't get what you're trying to say -
What is wrong and what's okay
You beat yourself up one more time
You trample on this fierce heart of mine

I don't want you to love me
I don't want you to love me

I don't know what you want from me
All this endless sympathy
You beat yourself up one more time
You trample on this fierce heart of mine

I don't want you to love me
I don't want you to love 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

Temperamental (Deluxe Edition)

From the album

Temperamental (Deluxe Edition) (2015)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Temperamental (Wamdue Project Remix)Everything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Temperamental (Deluxe Edition)