Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Tommy LiPuma

[Verse 1]
Of course I feel betrayed
But that's the way it goes
Everyone knows
Trying to make you love me again
Crying at your door
Just to hold you once more

[Pre-Chorus]
Darling I know
It's so hard to let a love go
It's not easy letting love go
It's so hard to let a love go

[Chorus]
Darling don't I know
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
On and on and on and on
Darling don't I know
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
On and on and on and on

[Verse 2]
Your friends said you looked well
You promised that you'd write
And call them at night
But if you wake up in another town
And it's loneliness you've found
Just 'cause I'm not around ('Cause I'm not around)

[Pre-Chorus]
Darling you'll know
It's so hard to let a love go
It's not easy letting love go
It's so hard to let a love go

[Chorus]
Darling don't I know
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
(It's gone) On and on and on and on
Darling don't I know
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
(It's gone) On and on and on and on

[Verse 3]
But I'm not gonna pretend
I find it hard to forgive
And find a new way to live
And if I had my time again
I'd still have you back
It's as simple as that

[Pre-Chorus]
Darling I know
It's so hard to let a love go
It's not easy letting love go
It's so hard to let a love go

[Chorus]
Darling don't I know (No)
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
(It's gone) On and on and on and on (Oh)
Darling don't I know
It is never easy letting go
When it's gone on and on and on and on
(And gone) On and on and on and on

[Outro]
It ain't easy I know
But you gotta let go
It ain't easy I know
But you gotta let go (Oh no)
It ain't easy I know
Letting love go

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.

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