Everything But The Girl

Released: May 6, 1996

Songwriter: Ben Watt Tracey Thorn

Producer: Ben Watt

[Intro]
I don't wanna feel this way
I don't wanna feel this way

[Verse 1]
I don't wanna feel this way
Won't somebody take away this feeling
I'm looking at an open sky
It's like my roof has got no ceiling

[Chorus]
It's wrong to feel this way
I know it's wrong, I know it's bad
To only see what isn't there
To want and want and never have
But you know there's more to me now, don't you?
You'll always cover for me, won't you?
Won't you?

[Verse 2]
And this used to look half full
Now some days it looks half empty
And some days it feels like nothing
It always used to feel like plenty

[Chorus]
But it's wrong to feel this way
I know it's wrong, I know it's bad
To only see what isn't there
To want and want and never have
But you know there's more to me now, don't you?
You'll always cover for me, won't you?
Won't you?
Won't you?

[Bridge]
But I don't wanna feel this way
Won't somebody take away this feeling?
You play good cop, I play bad cop
Still my roof has got no ceiling
Still my roof has got no ceiling

[Outro]
I don't wanna feel this way
I don't wanna feel this way
I don't wanna feel this way
I don't wanna feel this way

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

Walking Wounded

From the albums

Walking Wounded (1996)
Walking Wounded (Deluxe Edition) (2015)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

Good Cop, Bad CopEverything But The Girl

Everything But The Girl

Walking Wounded