Everything But The Girl

Songwriter: Ben Watt

Producer: Ben Watt

How much of yourself do you give away
After someone's left your life in disarray?
It still hurts
But it won't show
Because I'm too proud
So you're never ever gonna know

I'm on the dark side of the street
Not the light side of the street

It's packed at 2am
I've got no coat
Are you on your own?
I'm into you
When are you going home?
Get into me

How much of the day can you sit around
Letting all your feelings drag underground?
I don't care and I do care
Because I want it
If I know that it's out there everywhere

I'm on the dark side of the street
Not the light side of the street

It's packed at 2am
I've got no coat
Are you on your own?
I'm into you
When are you going home?
Get into me

I saw you standing at the bar
Don't know your name or who you are

It's packed at 2am
I've got no coat
Are you on your own?
I'm into you
When are you going home?
Get into me

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

Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes

From the album

Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes (2005)

Everything But The Girl popular songs

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Everything But The Girl

Adapt or Die: Ten Years of Remixes