Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Everything But The Girl

[Verse 1]
Not for the first time I look back
On all those years
Not for the last time names will ring
In my ears
When there was just a gang of us
Storming the town by train and bus
A moment of thought this heart sends
To old friends

[Verse 2]
Not for the first time I look back
On my first love
Unable to speak or think or move
Hand in glove
What of it now and where is he
He who once meant so much to me?
Because we are not, I can't pretend
Now old friends

[Bridge]
I was told love should hold old friends
I was told love should hold old friends
When you leave you will close the door behind you
Don't we always
And time won't make amends
To old friends

[Verse 3]
Standing here with my arm around you
Life's moved on
And all its borderlines
Are being redrawn
The winter has come, the roads are white
Everyone's home late tonight
May we stay or will it depend
As old friends
In the end still old friends?

[Outro]
Oh, old friends
Old friends
Oh yeah
Oh yeah
Oh, old friends

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

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From the albums

Worldwide (1991)
Worldwide (Deluxe Edition) (2013)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Old FriendsEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

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