Declan Patrick MacManus, better known by his stage name Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television host. According to Rolling Stone, Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles." His first album, My Aim Is True (1977), spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad "Alison". Costello's next two albums, This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 until early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, "Oliver's Army" (1979), sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain. He has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise. From 1977 until the early 2000s, Costello's albums regularly ranked high on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, with This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom (1982) voted the best album of their respective years. His biggest US hit single, "Veronica" (1989), reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Tasmin Archer is a British pop singer from Bradford, England. Her first album, Great Expectations, spawned the hit "Sleeping Satellite", which reached number one in the United Kingdom and Ireland. She won the Brit Award for British Breakthrough Act in 1993 and has since released two more studio albums.
Mighty Like a Rose is the 13th studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1991 on compact disc as Warner Brothers 26575. The title is presumably a reference to the pop standard "Mighty Lak' a Rose", and although that song does not appear on the album, the words of its first stanza are quoted in the booklet of the 2002 reissue. It peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart, and at No. 55 on the Billboard 200.
Spike is the 12th studio album by English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1989 by Warner Bros. Records. It was his first album for the label and first release since My Aim Is True without the Attractions. It peaked at No. 5 on the UK Albums Chart and also reached the Billboard 200 at No. 32, thanks to the single and his most notable American hit, "Veronica", which reached No. 19 on the Billboard Hot 100 and No. 1 on the US Modern Rock chart. In The Village Voice's annual Pazz & Jop critics poll for the year's best albums, Spike finished at No. 7.
King of America is the tenth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released on 21 February 1986. Co-produced by Costello and T Bone Burnett, the album originated following a series of tours the two made under the name "the Coward Brothers". Recording took place in mid-1985 at various studios in Los Angeles, California, with a group of American session musicians dubbed "the Confederates". Selected by Burnett, they included Ray Brown, Earl Palmer and former members of Elvis Presley's TCB Band. Costello's regular backing band, the Attractions, were intended to appear on half of the album before poor sessions led to them appearing on only one track, "Suit of Lights".
"Oliver's Army" is a song written by English musician Elvis Costello and performed by Costello and the Attractions, from the former's third studio album Armed Forces (1979). The song is a new wave track that was lyrically inspired by the Troubles in Northern Ireland and includes lyrics critical of the socio-economic components of war. Costello had travelled to Northern Ireland and was influenced by sights of British soldiers patrolling Belfast. Musically, the song features a glossy production and a keyboard performance inspired by ABBA, creating a juxtaposition between the lyrics and music that both critics and Costello have pointed out.
Peter Michael Thomas is an English rock drummer best known for his collaboration with singer Elvis Costello, both as a member of his band the Attractions and with Costello as a solo artist. Besides his lengthy career as a studio musician and touring drummer, he has been a member of the band Squeeze during the 1990s and a member of the supergroup Works Progress Administration during the early 2000s.
Flowers in the Dirt is the eighth solo studio album by Paul McCartney. The album was released on 5 June 1989 on Parlophone, as he was embarking on his first world tour since the Wings Over the World tour in 1975–76. It earned McCartney some of his best reviews for an album of original songs since Tug of War (1982). The album made number one in the United Kingdom and Norway and produced several hit singles. The album artwork was a collaboration between artist Brian Clarke, who painted the canvas and arranged the flowers, and Linda McCartney, who produced the cover photography.
The Very Best of Elvis Costello is a compilation album by English musician Elvis Costello, first released on 21 September 1999 through Polygram Records. The album spanned his recorded work from 1977 through 1998. It was re-released less than two years later on Rhino Records as the first entry in their comprehensive Costello reissue series.
All This Useless Beauty is the seventeenth studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released in 1996 by Warner Bros. Records. It is his tenth and final album with his long-standing backing band the Attractions, and the last album he delivered under his contract to the Warner Bros. label, his contract expiring with a further compilation album, Extreme Honey. It peaked at number 28 on the UK album chart, and at number 53 on the Billboard 200.
Brutal Youth is an album by English musician Elvis Costello, released in 1994. It contains the first recordings Costello made with his band the Attractions since Blood and Chocolate (1986). Brutal Youth was the third, and most recent of Costello's albums, to peak at number two in the UK Albums Chart, following on from Armed Forces (1979) and Get Happy!! (1980).
The Juliet Letters is a studio album by the British rock singer and songwriter Elvis Costello and British string quartet Brodsky Quartet, released in 1993 by Warner Bros. Records. Costello described the album as "a song sequence for string quartet and voice and it has a title. It's a little bit different. It's not a rock opera. It's a new thing." It peaked at No. 18 on the UK Albums Chart, and at No. 125 on the Billboard 200.
For the Stars is a collaboration album by classically trained Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter and Elvis Costello, released in 2001.
"Sleeping Satellite" is a song by British singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer, released in September 1992 by EMI and SBK as the first single from her debut album, Great Expectations (1992). The song was written by Archer with John Beck and John Hughes, and produced by Julian Mendelsohn and Paul Wickens. It received favorable reviews from music critics and became an international hit. "Sleeping Satellite" peaked at number one in the United Kingdom, Greece, Ireland, and Israel, and reached the top 20 in 13 other countries, as well as numbers 32 and 24 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and Cash Box Top 100 in June 1993. There were two different music videos produced to promote the single.
"Shipbuilding" is a song with lyrics by Elvis Costello and music by Clive Langer. Written during the Falklands War of 1982, Costello's lyrics highlight the irony of the war bringing back prosperity to the traditional shipbuilding areas of Clydeside, Merseyside, North East England and Belfast to build new ships to replace those being sunk in the war, whilst also sending off the sons of these areas to fight and, potentially, lose their lives in those same ships. According to Robert Sandall, the best version of the song is the one recorded and released as a single by English singer-songwriter Robert Wyatt in August 1982 a few months after the Falklands War, although it was not a hit until it was re-released eight months later on the first anniversary of the conflict.
Out of Our Idiot is a compilation album by English musician Elvis Costello, released in 1987 through Demon Records in the United Kingdom. It is composed of rare and previously unreleased Costello recordings dating back to 1979. It was only available as an import in the USA and other markets. The album was credited to "Various Artists" rather than to Costello because the tracks were recorded and credited under a variety of names, including the Costello Show, Elvis Costello and the Attractions, Elvis Costello and the Confederates, the Coward Brothers, Napoleon Dynamite, the Emotional Toothpaste and the MacManus Gang. The songs featured a variety of collaborators, including Jimmy Cliff, Nick Lowe and T-Bone Burnett.
"New Amsterdam" is a song written and performed by new wave musician Elvis Costello on his 1980 album, Get Happy!! Written about the New World and New York, the recording of the song that appears on Get Happy!! was a demo that Costello had recorded in Pimlico.
Great Expectations is the debut album by English singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer, released in late 1992 on EMI Records. The first single released from the album, "Sleeping Satellite", went to number one both in the UK and Ireland, while sitting just outside the top 10 in Germany. Three more UK singles were released from the album in the wake of Archer's initial success: "In Your Care", "Lords of the New Church" and "Arienne".
Bloom is the second full-length album by British singer-songwriter Tasmin Archer, released on 25 March 1996.
"The Other End (Of the Telescope)" is a song by American band 'Til Tuesday, which was released in 1988 on their third and final studio album Everything's Different Now. The song was written by Aimee Mann and Elvis Costello. Costello recorded his own version of the song for his 1996 album All This Useless Beauty.
