Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Tracey Thorn Ben Watt

Producer: Tommy LiPuma

[Verse 1]
Meet me in the morning
I'll have the motor running
Down frosty lanes, under a glass blue sky
This is living, this is living

[Pre-Chorus]
I haven't come to be a stranger
I haven't come to break your home
I haven't come to harm your children
I've come to be your love

[Chorus]
Don't let the grass grow under your feet
The sands of time keep running
For now at last I'm down on the street
With the engine running

[Verse 2]
Meet me in the evening
I'll have the log fire burning
Down icy lanes, under a darkening sky
This is living, this is living

[Pre-Chorus]
I haven't come to be a stranger
I haven't come to break your home
I haven't come to harm your children
I've come to be your love

[Chorus]
Don't let the grass grow under your feet
The sands of time keep running
For now at last I'm down on the street
With the engine running

[Verse 3]
Come to be your love

[Pre-Chorus]
I haven't come to be a stranger
I haven't come to break your home
I haven't come to harm your children
I've come to be your love

[Chorus]
Don't let the grass grow under your feet
The sands of time keep running
For now at last I'm down on the street
With the engine running (Come to be your love)
Don't let the grass grow under your feet
The sands of time keep running (Come to be your love)
For now at last I'm down on the street
With the engine running

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

Meet Me in the MorningEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

The Language of Life