Everything but the Girl are an English musical duo formed in Kingston upon Hull in 1982, consisting of lead singer, songwriter, composer and occasional guitarist Tracey Thorn and guitarist, keyboardist, songwriter, composer, producer and singer Ben Watt. The group's early works have been categorized as sophisti-pop with jazz influences[3][4] before undergoing an electronic turn following the worldwide success of the 1994 hit single "Missing", remixed by Todd Terry.[5]
The duo have achieved four top 10 and 12 top 40 singles in the UK[6] and received eight gold and two platinum album BPI certifications in the UK[7] as well as one gold album RIAA certification in the US.[8] Their cover of "I Don't Want to Talk About It" reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart in 1988, a feat later matched by "Missing", which charted high in several countries and reached No. 2 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 in 1995 and spent over seven months on the UK Singles Chart for the "Missing" remix, which led to a Brit Award nomination for Best British Single.
Their ninth album, Walking Wounded (1996), entered the UK albums chart at No. 4, and spawned the top-10 singles "Walking Wounded" and "Wrong.” The band went inactive in 2000, with Thorn declaring she would no longer perform live.[9] Thorn and Watt, who did not publicise their romantic relationship while active,[10] married in 2009,[11] both released solo albums and said it was unlikely Everything but the Girl would be active again.[12]
However, in November 2022, Thorn and Watt announced an album had been recorded for release in the second quarter of 2023. Fuse, the band's first new material in 24 years, was released on 21 April 2023. It charted at No. 3 on the Official UK Album Chart, making it the highest charting album of their career. In a 5-star review, The Guardian said: "Still staking out pop's frontier after 40 years. It is audibly made by people with a deep love for and understanding of the music they're inspired by … a comeback worth waiting for."
1985 view of Turners, with the slogan Everything but the Girl
They formed a side-project[14] as a duo and adopted the name Everything but the Girl from a slogan used by the Hull shop, Turner's Furniture[15] at 34-38 Beverley Road, between Norfolk Street and College Street.[2][16]
Later, the pair, separately, each, had solo album releases through Cherry Red. Thorn's 1982 LP was A Distant Shore, an eight-track mini-album. Watt's 1983 debut LP, North Marine Drive, was the follow-up to his 1982 5-track EP Summer Into Winter, featuring Robert Wyatt.[2]
On 5 January 1983, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, as Everything But the Girl, made their live debut at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London, and performed with Paul Weller.[20]
Recorded in September 1983,[21] in May 1984, their debut album, Eden, was released, reaching No. 14 on the UK Albums Chart, spending 20 weeks on the chart.[6] It featured the single "Each and Every One", which reached No. 28 on the UK top 40.[6] Thorn wrote in 2016 that her lyric was misunderstood as a lovelorn lament, when it was actually a response to the patronizing tone her earlier all-female band Marine Girls was written about by male music critics.[22]
In spite of their early history as established independent artists, newcomers Everything but the Girl were considered part of the "lite-jazz/neo-jazz-pop"[23] music style, later[24] known as "sophisti-pop", alongside other British acts such as Carmel, Swing Out Sister, Sade, Matt Bianco and The Style Council. Both Watt and Thorn were guest musicians on the Style Council's Café Bleu album,[2] while Everything but the Girl worked with producer Robin Millar who simultaneously also produced Sade's debut album in the same studio, alternating between collaborating with the two bands.[25]
A later version of the album, Everything but the Girl, was released in the United States on the Sire label, containing six tracks from Eden,[26] two UK singles and four alternate tracks,[27] the six substitutions replace the second side.[23]
The 1985 album Love Not Money was the band's second studio album release, and signalled a move away from jazz and Latin influences to more traditional electric guitar, bass and drums arrangements. The US edition included two songs not on the original UK release: a cover version of the Pretenders' song "Kid" and "Heaven Help Me".[citation needed]
In 1988, Everything but the Girl released Idlewild. Blending acoustic instrumentation with sequenced drums and synthesisers, it reached No. 13 on the UK Albums Chart, spending 15 weeks on the chart.[6] A cover version of Danny Whitten's "I Don't Want to Talk About It", previously a success for Rod Stewart, was released as a single shortly afterwards. It reached No. 3 on the UK Singles Chart[6] and was added to the latter issues of the album.[2] Around this time, Lloyd Cole and the Commotions asked Thorn to contribute vocals to the song "Big Snake" on their final studio album, Mainstream.
In the summer of 1992, the duo was forced to curtail recording and touring for several months when Watt developed Churg–Strauss syndrome, a rare autoimmune disease. Hospitalised for 10 weeks, and enduring several life-saving operations, he subsequently wrote a memoir, Patient, about his near-death ordeal.
In 1993, Everything but the Girl released two EPs in the UK. One featured a cover version of Paul Simon's "The Only Living Boy in New York". The other spawned a subsequent top 10 UK hit, "I Didn't Know I Was Looking for Love",[29] for Karen Ramirez.
While recording Amplified Heart Thorn and Watt wrote lyrics and music for two tracks – "Protection" and "Better Things" on Massive Attack's second album Protection. Thorn sang lead vocals on both. The single "Protection" reached No.14 on the UK top 40.[30] The album reached No.4 on the UK Albums Chart.[30]
Buoyed by the recent successes and out of contract at WEA, Everything but the Girl released the self-produced Walking Wounded in 1996 exclusively licensed to Atlantic Records for the United States and Canada and Virgin Records for the Rest of the World. Featuring collaborations with Spring Heel Jack and Howie B it ushered in a new electronic sound for their own work. It charted at No.4 on the UK Albums Chart and spawned two top ten UK singles – "Walking Wounded" and "Wrong". Two further singles – "Single" and "Before Today" – reached No.20 and No.25 respectively.[6]
In 1999, the duo followed it up with their ninth studio album, Temperamental. It charted at No.16 on the UK Albums Chart.[6]
"Self-awareness is a dangerous thing: by about the third or fourth record, people were throwing comparisons at us and you have to be very tough to withstand it. And by the end of the '90s, we were playing to 5,000 people a night. I'd stand on stage, looking out, thinking, "I don't want to be this big."
—Ben Watt in 2012, recalled a lacklustre feeling from the late 1990s, during the latter years of EBTG.[32]
Between 2000 and 2022, there were no new recordings from Everything but the Girl. In 2002, 2004 and 2005, the duo curated compilations of their material. The 2004 compilation, Like the Deserts Miss the Rain, was a DVD release that included footage of a 1999 performance at the Forum venue in London, UK, for which John McKenzie and long-time collaborator Martin Ditcham performed alongside the pair as session musicians.[citation needed]
From 1999, Watt concentrated on DJ and production/remix work, finding success as one half of Lazy Dog, with partner Jay Hannan, and collaborating with Beth Orton on her 1999 album Central Reservation and her 2002 album Daybreaker.[33] Watt then proceeded with a new angle on his solo career that included launching the Buzzin' Fly record label in 2003,[34] and becoming the part-owner-founder of the Neighbourhood and Cherry Jam nightclubs from 2002–2005.[35] Watt released a string of club-oriented productions including the Bright Star EP, with producer Stimming and British singer Julia Biel, on Buzzin' Fly in 2010.[36]
In 2005, Thorn co-wrote and recorded vocals for the song "Damage", a collaboration with German band Tiefschwarz that appeared on their Eat Books album. Thorn's second solo album, Out of the Woods, was then released in 2007,[37] followed by her third solo album, Love and Its Opposite, in 2010.[38] In October 2011, Thorn released a cover version of The xx's "Night Time", on which Watt played guitar and sang backing vocals. This was their first recording together in over a decade, although it was not an Everything but the Girl release.[39]
In an April 2011 interview, Thorn was asked whether she would ever work again with Watt as Everything but the Girl. Thorn responded, "Yes, we do keep saying we are nearly ready to maybe do some work together again. There are certain obstacles, some practical, some psychological, that we would need to overcome. But it may well happen."[40] A collection of Christmas songs, Tinsel and Lights, for which Thorn recorded cover versions of Christmas songs with two new original songs, was released in October 2012 on Buzzin' Fly's sister record label Strange Feeling.[41] Watt and the couple's children provided backing vocals on the original song "Joy".
In 2012, the band's first four albums were reissued by Edsel Records as "deluxe" double CDs, with demo recordings and other additional material. At the time, Watt explained that Warner Music Group still maintained control over their back catalogue: "our big fear was that one day we'd wake up and they'd have reissued them, without telling us."; when the representative from Edsel, a company that specialises in reissued material, made contact, the couple decided that the time was appropriate. Additionally, Thorn stated that the thought of reforming the band and playing live filled her "with cold dread"—upon re-listening to the early Everything but the Girl records, Thorn experienced a sense of "Gosh, well, I'm not really that person any more."[32]
A second tranche of Demon/Edsel reissues, covering the four albums released between 1990 and 1994, was announced in September 2013. According to the Everything but the Girl website, "Once again, Ben and Tracey have helped at every stage of the process, sourcing demos, rarities and memorabilia for the releases."[42]
The band's final two albums, Walking Wounded and Temperamental were given the deluxe treatment and were reissued by Demon/Edsel on 4 September 2015.[43]
Watt paused his association with record labels and DJ activities to return to his folk-jazz singer-songwriter roots in 2014. His first solo album since 1983, Hendra was released on 14 April 2014. It featured collaborations with Bernard Butler, formerly of the band Suede, Berlin-based producer Ewan Pearson and David Gilmour of Pink Floyd. The album won the 'Best 'Difficult' Second Album' category at the AIM Independent Music Awards 2014.[44] It was included at No 27 in Uncut's Top 75 Albums of 2014.[45] He followed it up in 2016 with Fever Dream. It continued his relationship with Bernard Butler, and added guest cameos from MC Taylor of North Carolina folk-rock band, Hiss Golden Messenger, and Boston singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler. It received a 9/10 review in Uncut magazine.[46] In a four-star review, The Guardian said: 'In his early 50s, he is making some of the best music of his career.'[47]
In addition to solo music projects, both Thorn and Watt have written books. Thorn's 2013 memoir, Bedsit Disco Queen, covers a significant portion of the history of Everything but the Girl as a band.[48]
In July 2017, Everything but the Girl reclaimed the rights to eight of their albums, plus the American rights to Temperamental and Walking Wounded from Warner Music Group; this catalogue will now be distributed through Chrysalis Records under licence from Watt's Strange Feeling label.[49]
Comeback and Fuse
On 2 November 2022, Thorn announced on Twitter that a new Everything but the Girl album had been recorded and would be released in spring 2023.[50]
The first single from their 11th album Fuse, "Nothing Left to Lose" premiered on BBC Radio 6 Music on 10 January 2023.[51]Fuse was released on 21 April 2023 and features "Nothing Left to Lose" along with nine more original songs, both electronic and acoustic.[52] On 9 August, they released Live at Maida Vale, a four track EP featuring live in studio performances of three Fuse songs and 1996's "Single".[53]
Tracey Thorn is a British singer and songwriter. She is best known as a member of the duo Everything but the Girl, active from 1982 to 1999, and again from 2022. She was in the band Marine Girls from 1980 to 1983. Since 2007 she has been active as a solo artist; and as a writer of books and essays.
Walking Wounded is the ninth studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 6 May 1996 by Atlantic Records in the United States and Virgin Records in Europe. The album saw the group adopting a more electronica-based style, following the success of the remixed version of "Missing" from their previous album, Amplified Heart.
Benjamin Brian Thomas Watt is a British musician, singer, songwriter, author, DJ, and radio presenter, best known as a member of the duo Everything but the Girl.
Eden is the debut studio album by the British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 4 June 1984, by Blanco y Negro Records. The album contains the single "Each and Every One", which peaked at number 28 on the UK Singles Chart. The cover design was by lead singer Tracey Thorn's former colleague in Marine Girls, Jane Fox.
"Missing" is a song by English musical duo Everything but the Girl, taken from their eighth studio album, Amplified Heart (1994). It was written by the two band members, Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt, and was produced by Watt and John Coxon. It was taken as the second single off the album on 8 August 1994 by Blanco y Negro Records in the United Kingdom and by Atlantic Records in the United States. It initially did not achieve much success until it was remixed by Todd Terry and re-released in 1995, resulting in worldwide success, peaking at or near the top of the charts in many countries. The release of the remixed version of "Missing" gave an indication of the band's future experimentation with more electronic dance music on subsequent albums.
Temperamental is the tenth studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 27 September 1999 by Atlantic Records in the United States and Virgin Records in Europe. It was the last EBTG album before they entered a two-decades hiatus.
"I Don't Want to Talk About It" is a song written by American guitarist Danny Whitten. It was first recorded by American rock band Crazy Horse and issued as the final track on side one of their 1971 eponymous album. It was Whitten's signature tune, but gained more fame via its numerous cover versions, especially that by Rod Stewart. Cash Box magazine has described it as "a magnificent ballad outing."
Idlewild is the fourth studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 29 February 1988 by Blanco y Negro Records and Sire Records.
Marine Girls were an English post-punk group from Hatfield, Hertfordshire, England. The group was formed in 1980, by two sixth form schoolfriends; Tracey Thorn and Gina Hartman. Originally, Thorn just played guitar and Hartman was the lead vocalist and percussionist. Thorn overcame her shyness and started singing too by the time they started making records. They were later joined by Jane Fox on bass and her younger sister, Alice, on joint vocals and percussion.
Love Not Money is the second studio album by British band Everything but the Girl, which consisted of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt. It was produced by Robin Millar, recorded at Powerplant Studios in London and was released in the UK on 15 April 1985 by Blanco y Negro Records. It spent nine weeks on the UK Albums Chart, peaking at number 10. In the United States, Sire Records issued the album with two additional tracks.
The Language of Life is the fifth studio album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released on 5 February 1990 by Atlantic Records and Blanco y Negro Records.
Worldwide is the sixth album by Everything but the Girl, released on 1 October 1991.
Acoustic is an album by Everything but the Girl, released in North America on 2 June 1992. It consists of Everything but the Girl's covers of six songs by other artists as well as two live recordings and four re-recordings of songs from the duo's repertoire. In the United Kingdom, the duo had released the Covers EP for Blanco y Negro, which had peaked at number 13 on the UK Singles chart dated 7 March 1992, with this release expanded into a full album for its release abroad.
Home Movies is a compilation album by Everything but the Girl featuring songs from seven of their first eight studio albums as well as two newly recorded songs, a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Only Living Boy in New York" and the band's own "I Didn't Know I Was Looking for Love". The album was released in 1993 and reached number 5 on the UK Albums Chart.
The Best of Everything but the Girl is a compilation album by English musical duo Everything but the Girl, released in 1996.
Everything but the Girl is a compilation album by British musical duo Everything but the Girl. It was released in 1984 in the US and Canada by Sire Records, serving as the band's debut album in those countries. It contains six tracks from their United Kingdom debut Eden, two UK singles and four B-sides.
Tinsel and Lights is a Christmas album by British singer Tracey Thorn. It was released on 30 October 2012 on Buzzin' Fly Records and Merge Records. It is her fourth solo studio album.
Solo: Songs and Collaborations 1982–2015 is a compilation album by Tracey Thorn, released in the UK on 23 October 2015. It features 34 tracks spanning her career as a solo artist and includes collaborations with other artists, including The Unbending Trees ("Overture"), Massive Attack ("Protection") and The Style Council. Further collaborations include tracks with Robert Wyatt and Hot Chip. The tracks are arranged over two discs. It is also available as a digital album, and as a shortened single-disc compilation.
"Walking Wounded" is a song by English musical duo Everything but the Girl. Member Ben Watt wrote the song's lyrics while electronic music duo Spring Heel Jack composed the music and produced the track. The song appears on Everything but the Girl's ninth studio album, Walking Wounded (1996), in two different versions: the album version as track five and the Omni Trio remix as the final track. It was the duo's first single release on Virgin Records, as their previous label, Blanco y Negro, had dropped them before the Todd Terry remix of "Missing" became a worldwide hit.
"Each and Every One" is the second single by the British music duo Everything but the Girl, that reached #28 in the UK charts in May 1984. It was the only single from the album Eden and the USA album Everything but the Girl.
"Our debut album 'Eden’ came out in May 1984, but we had actually recorded it the previous September, during our summer break from university in 1983. The release was delayed due to our protracted exit from Cherry Red alongside A&R man Mike Alway, in order to join his new label Blanco Y Negro through Warner."
↑ Histen, Michael (2009). "Tracey Thorn". 2k50: The 50 Best Songs of the Decade. Michael Histen. Archived from the original on 21 May 2023. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
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