Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Ben Watt

[Verse 1]
I don't want excuses
I don't want your smiles
I don't want to feel like we're apart a thousand miles
And I don't want your attitude
I don't want your things
And I don't want a phone that never rings

[Refrain]
I want your love, and I want it now
I want your love, and I want it now

[Verse 2]
I don't want your history
I don't want that stuff
I want you to shut your mouth
That would be enough
And I don't care if you've been here before
You don't understand
Tonight, I feel above the law, I'm coming in to land

[Refrain]
I want your love, and I want it now
I want your love, and I want it now

[Bridge]
My heart is that much harder now
That's what I thought before today
My heart is that much harder now
And I thought that it would stay that way, before today
Before today
I don't want a phone that never rings

[Outro]
I want your love, and I want it now
I want your love, and I want it now
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
And I want it now
I want your love
I want your love
I want your love
My heart is that much harder now
My heart is that much harder now
Harder now, harder now, harder now

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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