Everything But The Girl

Released: February 5, 1990

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Tommy LiPuma

[Verse 1]
Oh loverboy, to you I belong
Maybe one day you'll wake and you'll find me gone
But loverboy if you call me home

[Refrain]
I'll come driving
I'll come driving fast as wheels can turn

[Verse 2]
Oh loverboy, I know you too well
And all of my lonely secrets to you I tell
The highest of highs, the lowest of lows

[Refrain]
I'll come driving
I'll come driving fast as wheels can turn

[Chorus]
Driving
I'll come driving
Fast as wheels can turn
Driving
I'll come driving

[Bridge]
Stretching away as far as my eyes can see
Deserts and darkness, my hand on the wheel
Loverboy, please call me home
A girl can get lonely out here on the road
A girl can get lonely out here on the road

[Verse 3]
You see some days I find the old ways frighten me too easily
I leave my key and say "I'm too young"
But loverboy, if you call me home
Oh loverboy, if you call me home
Oh loverboy, if you call me home

[Refrain]
I'll come driving
I'll come driving fast as wheels can turn

[Chorus]
Driving
I'll come driving
Fast as wheels can turn
Driving
I'll come driving
Fast as wheels can turn
Driving
I'll come driving
Fast as wheels can turn
Driving
I'll come driving
Fast as wheels can turn
Driving
I'll come driving
Driving
Driving
I'll come driving

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

The Language of Life

From the album

The Language of Life (1990)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

DrivingEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

The Language of Life