Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
And who is this man standing at my door?
Is he lying or true?
Is this how I see you?
Like a rolling pebble on the deepest ocean floor
Life has rubbed me smooth
But you cup me in your hands
And you roll me in your pocket
How many men, unhappy, crammed inside their skin
Wordless to explain, stand at someone's door?

[Verse 2]
Am I too old for this?
Is there kindness in his face?
A good man or a weak man?
There are horses in the room pulling me through fences
I throw the window open
And the light hits the pavement
Come in, come in, whoever you are
I will know you, if only from afar

[Bridge]
Once I saw a dry dock
And the rusting hulks of ships and trawlers
With a wind that could cut steel
It was so cold

[Verse 3]
And I don't have to think that hard
And it all comes flooding back
There is so much neither of us will ever know
Come in, come in, whoever you are
I will know you, if only from afar

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 Only Living Boy in New York

From the albums

The Only Living Boy in New York (1993)
Worldwide (Deluxe Edition) (2013)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

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Everything But The Girl

The Only Living Boy in New York