If you’re just joining us, check out the About This Project link for details. Basically, I make playlists of all the singles by certain musical artists and then try to order them using the guiding principle “do I like each song more than the last song.” I define “single” in a broad enough way to include any song that was released as a purchasable single in any format in any country; as a promotional single in any country; as a video; or generally any song that I know charted anywhere. My main sources are Wikipedia (mostly reliable) and Discogs (reasonably reliable). I welcome editing feedback since sometimes I favor speed over spelling.
Everything in this section is just great and it just keeps getting better.
I mentioned before that – on my previous music blog – I was writing about 500 or so songs a year (alphabetically – each song in my iTunes library) and then I ran into Elvis Costello and dropped to about 200 songs a year. Part of this was because I had more to say about each song in Costello’s catalog, but part of this was because I got so wrapped up in listening to his songs that I couldn’t complete any entries. I’m trying to be a lot more disciplined this time around.
As of this writing, The Elvis Costello Wiki is back up.
70. Dio Come ti Amo
(Artist: Vega ft. Elvis Cosetllo)
Spain-only Digital single from the Vega album Non ho l’età (2017), released as a single in 2017
Cover of the 1966 Italian Entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, originally performed by Domenico Modugno (1966)
I had not previous heard of Vega before I started working on this list but she’s been a successful artist in Spain since 2003. I had also never heard of this song – it placed at #17 in the 1966 Eurovision Song Contest. Lest I get pulled too far down into a Eurovision rabbit hole, it sounds like this performance was not without controversy. The important thing is – because the world is a strange and wonderful place – Vega, Costello and Attractions/Imposters drummer Pete Thomas (and a larger band) covered this song for her 2017 album, Non ho l’età. Got to say, the original is a little hard for me to listen to, but Vega and Costello kind of sound fantastic together on this song. Indeed, it sounds like a whole other song. The absolute very initial original version of the tune was apparently a duet between Domenico Modugno and Gigliola Cinquetti, so I suppose this is something of an attempt to perform the song in the manner it’s writers had intended.
What I Like – There is a robustness in Costello’s voice at this stage in his career that really works in Italian. I can’t explain it.
69. The Other End (Of The Telescope)
(Artist: Elvis Costello and The Attractions)
Third single from All This Useless Beauty (1996), released as a single in 1996
Originally recorded by ‘Til Tuesday on the album Everything’s Different Now (1988)
Lyric I Especially Like:
‘Cos late in the evening, as I sit here moping
With a bamboo needle on a shellac of Chopin
And the cast-iron heart that you failed to tear open
Elvis Costello co-wrote this song with extraordinary singer/songwriter Aimee Mann – one-time leader of the 80’s band ‘Til Tuesday (best known for “Voices Carry”) who has gone on to write some of the best songs of the last twenty years. According to Costello:
I had already almost entirely re-written the lyric of “The Other End of the Telescope,” lying on the floor of studio while the band sat impatiently in the control room. This song was co-written with Aimee Mann and it seemed to suit her entirely. The tune, which was Aimee’s , was very lovely but I felt that the text needed to be more accusative before I could really make it my own. Now it would open the album.
Elvis Costello, liner note to the 2001 reissue of All This Useless Beauty
Both sets of lyrics are here if you care to compare. If you’re familiar with Mann’s work, you’ll easily place this melody in her firmament. I think the ‘Til Tuesday version suffers from late 80’s production values (almost everything in the late 80’s suffered in this regard) but when you hear Mann’s voice singing, it’s pretty obviously her music. That said, I agree with the writers at Trunkworthy’s Elvis Costello Song of the Week that the more stripped down Attractions version is a stronger version of the song (and more in line with the direction Mann would later travel aurally as well). Costello’s lyrics are a collage of images surrounding a couple who have fallen out of orbit with each other.
What I like: Steve Nieve’s piano work is an undeniable highlight here and I also think Costello’s vocal performance is particularly evocative.
68. Complicated Shadows
First single from Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (2009), released as a single in 2009
Original version on All This Useless Beauty (1996)
Lyric I Especially Like:
Sometimes justice you will find
Is just dumb not colour-blind
I completely understand the urge to turn this song – with its lyrics about old West frontier justice – into a bluegrass song. It’s still a decent song, but holy cats, the original! The guitar! The vocals! The Attractions! I like the original so much that it’s been a little difficult for me to give the bluegrass version a fair shake for ten years now. I don’t honestly know if I’d rank it higher or lower if it were the only version of this song – I can’t hear it without immediately feeling that great octave jump on the original’s “but the jury was dismissed.” That doesn’t happen in this version. Anyhow, after much back and forth, I just plopped it down in the middle of the list. I think this is how much I like it but its… well, you know
What I Like: I can’t tell whether it’s Jerry Douglas’ dobro or Mike Compton’s mandolin, but I really like the chuga chuga rhythm that is being played on one of those instruments.
67. There’s a Story In Your Voice
(Artist: Elvis Costello and The Imposters)
European promo single from The Delivery Man (2004), released as a single in 2004
Lyric I Especially Like:
Now you say you’re leaving me
And packing up your clothes
I finally see you were a work of fiction
One of Costello’s most popular songs in the U.S. – “Everyday I Write The Books” (coming up shortly) – uses literary metaphors to chart the slow disintegration of a relationship. He plays again with different story images in “There’s a Story in Your Voice,” a kick-butt duet with Lucinda Williams. The first phrase out of Costello’s mouth is “once upon another time” (in Williams responds in the second verse by mocking the fairy-tales he’s told her) and then builds the rest of lyrics around various words and phrases related to literature. If you’re a fan of Costello’s penchant for wordplay (I am), this song is a nice little banquet.
But let’s talk about The Delivery Man. I think this is the great ignored Costello album. I’m not sure if it’s because of the year it was released or the way it was marketed or what, but it just seems to have been more or less collectively ignored. My perception – surely not reality. There’s half a dozen outstanding songs on the record – including this one and the other single, “Monkey to Man” (coming up), as well as non-singles “Either Side of the Same Town,” “Bedlam,” “The Scarlet Tide” and especially the slow burn heartbreak of “Country Darkness.” Ostensibly, the album is built around a story of the titular deliveryman and the impact he has on the lives of three different women. Costello doesn’t bother to place the songs in an order that communicates any sort of plot and – furthermore – doesn’t include the story’s Rosetta stone: the song “Hidden Shame”, which he’d written for Johnny Cash in the 80’s. That song didn’t appear on a Costello album until five years later on Secret, Profane and Sugarcane and it reveals the dark secret of the delivery man.. My point – and I do have one – is that The Delivery Man was presented to the world as a concept album with a deliberately oblique concept based on a Costello song from an obscure Johnny Cash album.
Oh, and there’s several different versions of the album with slightly different track lists.
Trust me, it’s/they’re one of his best records.
What I Like: Lucinda Williams owns this song and The Imposters sound typically fantastic.
66. Peace In Our Time
(Artist: The Imposter)
First (?) single from Goodbye Cruel World (1984), released as a single in 1984
Lyric I Especially Like:
They’re lighting a bonfire upon every hilltop in the land
Just another tiny island invaded when he’s got the whole world in his hands
And the Heavyweight Champion fights in the International Propaganda Star Wars
There’s already one spaceman in the White House what do you want another one for?
In the 80’s, there used to be this annual series of books titled The Rock Yearbook. These were UK-centric publications that were also released in the US. I had at least two volumes (1983 and 1984, I think – definitely 1984) and they introduced me to all manner of popular music that I wasn’t hearing on American radio (even on my beloved college station, WXCI). I recall clearly that in the 1984 edition, there’s a quote thanking Costello both for producing The Specials AKA “Free Nelson Mandela” and for his release of “Peace in Our Time” under the pseudonym “The Imposter.” This leads me to suspect that the song – at least initially – was released separately from Goodbye Cruel World. I can’t prove this at this, but I will note that the label on the single doesn’t mention Goodbye Cruel World (or Elvis Costello) anywhere. Lyrically, the song is (in Costello’s words) “a relic of those days of anti-nuclear dread” – next to Thatcher, a very popular subject for 80’s music. Perhaps I should make “top ten best anti-Thatcher” and “top ten best 80’s fear of nuclear war” lists. I digress. While I’m digressing, if you have a moment, I encourage you to scroll down and read Costello’s extended reflection on this song in the liner notes for the 2004 re-release of Goodbye Cruel World.
What I Like – The trombone work by Big Jim Paterson is particularly lovely.
65. I Still Have That Other Girl
(Artist: Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach/Bill Frisell)
U.S. promo single from The Sweetest Punch (1999), released as a single in 1999
Cover of a song originally by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach from Painted From Memory (1999)
Lyric I Especially Like:
I could give in, sometimes I think that I will
Despite the temptation, I try to be very strong
If my reluctance seems a surprise
It’s not ’cause I don’t want you
Costello writes fairly regularly about infidelity. “I Still Have That Other Girl” is a song sung to a potential paramour behind the back of his current partner. He had addressed a similar theme – almost cheating then backing off – on “Just About Glad” on Brutal Youth a few years earlier and, of course, he has a rather long list of songs about actually being unfaithful.
OK, let’s back this up. in 1996, Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach recorded the song “God Give Me Strength.” We’ll go into more details about that song when we reach it. They enjoyed their collaboration so much that they decided they’d make a whole album, which was Painted From Memory (1999). As that album was being created, jazz guitarist and arranger Bill Frisell started recording a companion album of light jazz covers of the songs on Painted From Memory which he titled The Sweetest Punch. Most of the songs on the latter album are instrumentals and if I may venture an opinion, it’s a very pretty album. One of the songs that does have a vocal track is, of course, “I Still Have That Other Girl,” which is reworked into a duet between Costello and the incomparable Cassandra Wilson. Her voice is lovely and Costello’s vocals on these compositions (on both albums) are maybe his career best. I’m not entirely sold on the idea that this song works as a duet. I guess kind of? Enough to keep me linking it here in the middle of my list? I love the original and also think the its more lush arrangement suits the song better.
What I Like – The vocals are fabulous, but what I enjoy about Frisell’s arrangements on this whole album is his bands’ breezy, effortless performances. The brass on this track is delightful.
64. National Ransom
Single (?) from National Ransom (2010), released as a single in 2010
Lyric I Especially Like:
Mother’s in the kitchen picking bones for breakfast
Boiling them down by the bushel and the score
Pull out your thumb and count what’s left of your fist
There’s a wolf at the window with ravening maw
When I start preparing these lists, I always start by making a list of every song that has been released as a single (be it on vinyl, cassette, digital, etc), video or somehow otherwise “singled out” as a song to promote an album. Up until Elvis Costello, I made a note on my spreadsheet about how I determined the song was a single that included a link to prove that the song did in fact meet my very loose criteria for inclusion on my rankings. I did not do this for Elvis Costello and, thus, find myself again in a position where I can’t immediately prove a song qualifies- previously, I didn’t ascertain why “The Imposter vs The Floodtide (Dust and Petals)” (#106) belonged on the list until weeks after I published that segment. I know that, at one point, I found some sort of evidence that led to me including “National Ransom” on this list. I just can’t find it now (and it’s not the fact that there was a related EP called National Ransack) .
Regarding the song, this title track from National Ransom is a great, politically charged look at class conflict played at the bluegrass equivalent of a breakneck pace. I like it more and more every time I listen to it.
What I Like – The lyrics and the vocal delivery, particularly on the staccato pre-choruses.
63. You Bowed Down
(Artist: Elvis Costello and The Attractions)
Sixth single from All This Useless Beauty (1996), released as a single in 1996
Originally recorded by Roger McGuinn on Back from Rio (1991)
Lyric I Especially Like:
So you’re in demand as long as you kiss their hand
But all the applause is for their name not yours
I have for years suspected that this song was heavily influenced by The Byrds (I mean, listen to that guitar figure at the top) but I only just this year learned it had been written and recorded by Byrds singer Roger MccGuinn. As it happens, I think Costello’s version (which is largely free from the pre-Grunge 80’s-style production horrors that afflict the McGuinn version) sounds unapologetically like a Byrds song, while McGuinn’s sounds like a late-80’s Steve Windwood cast-off. The lyrics are a cutting take down of somebody who has sold out their values to a political party or a corporation. The gentlemen at the Elvis Costello Song of the Week make a great point that this could be an indictment of everyone from the hippie era who sold out instead of remaining true to their values (you know, the central story element of like 20% of all 80’s media).
All This Useless Beauty was the last album Costello made with The Attractions before they morphed into The Imposters – the key difference being that bass player Bruce Thomas was replaced by Davey Faragher in The Imposters. Both are great bass players (and Costello has, of course, worked with a ton of other bass players on other albums and singles) but I know many fans lament the end of the Attractions. While the bulk of the singles after this point will still be with The Attractions, chronologically this is the final appearance of Bruce Thomas on this list.
What I Like – the inverted Byrds guitar figure at the beginning which, of course, goes down.
62. The Other Side of Summer
First single from Mighty Like A Rose (1991), released as a single in 1991
Lyric I Especially Like:
Now you can’t afford to fake all the drugs your parents used to take
Because of their mistakes you’d better be wide awake
I thought I’d be ranking this song a lot higher. When it came out in 1991 I absolutely loved it – top ten material. The lyrics are just dripping with bitter cynicism and I clearly needed that in my life just at that moment. Costello takes on John Lennon’s “Imagine” and Pink Floyd’s “Another Brick In The Wall, Part 2” as well as (I think) David Bowie’s fans and followers (“Rabid rebel dogs ransack the shampoo shop”) . However, I think the central theme of the tune is how we’re destroying the planet and just don’t care. I mean, people have been telling us we’re destroying the planet for years and as I write this, the permafrost is melting at an alarming rate so, I mean, the warnings were right. Thet were right back then, too, and that’s kind of Costello’s point. We don’t care. Let’s have fun fun fun until we melt the icecaps and our T-Bird is swept out to sea. Surf’s up! There’s a lot more to this song’s lyrics but the writers at Elvis Costello Song of the Week have that covered. In the liner notes for the reissue of Mighty Like The Rose, Costello goes into some detail about creating his version of the “Wall of Sound” of this Beach Boys pastiche. Listening to it in 2019, I am amazed at how much this song suffers from the same pre-grunge 80’s production that harmed so many records in this era. Just contrasting the sound on this album with that of 1994’s Brutal Youth (here’s “This is Hell” for easy comparison) demonstrates how much production technique changed (for the better) in just a couple of years.
What I Like – All time great keyboardist Larry Knechtel elevates this song, but I also love those opening bass notes.
61. I’m Your Toy
(Artist: Elvis Costello and The Attractions with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra)
Third single from Almost Blue (1981), released as a single in 1982
Cover of “Hot Burrito #1” originally recorded by The Flying Burrito Brothers (1969)
Oh, Mr. Costello, renaming a classic Gram Parsons track (he felt the original title was “inelegant”). Shame on you! 1969’s The Gilded Palace of Sin by The Flying Burrito Brothers is one of the most influential albums of the rock era. Led by Gram Parsons and Chris Hillman (both recently departed from The Byrds), The Flying Burrito Brothers crystallized the sound of country rock. The album didn’t sell well (it still hasn’t been certified gold) but it went on to inspire hundreds of more successful musicians. Indeed, if you’ve been exposed to the country rock of the 70’s (I’m looking at The Eagles, for example), then the style of this album will sound very familiar to you. In some ways, this is a shame because it means that it doesn’t sound as ground breaking now as it did in 1969.
The lyrics of “I’m Your Toy” aka “Hot Burrito #1” are the kind of “she done broke my heart by leaving for another guy” thing that Costello seems drawn to in both his own work and his choice of covers. Its hard as heck to top Gram Parsons’ vocal performance on the original, but Costello really commits to the song and his performance comes pretty close to Parsons. Please recognize that as high praise. Costello, in the 1994 reissue liner notes, writes about how the music of Gram Parsons in The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers opened up the rest of country music to him (he checked out the originals of the songs they covered – offering a clear motive of why Costello continues to be an enthusiastic cover artist). On “I’m Your Toy,” he returns that favor to Parsons – a fine gesture to a great, gone-to-soon artist.
As a post-script on Almost Blue (this being the final song we’ll be hearing from that album), Costello tells a story about how he was invited to join June Carter Cash, Johnny Cash and The Carter Family on stage to sing “Will The Circle Be Unbroken.” He writes:
During one of the solos, June sidled up to me and said, “You take the next verse.” I replied, “I can’t. You’ve already sung all the verses I know.” June smiled and said, “Make one up.” So I did. When one of The Carter Family tells you to make up a verse of an old song, you just obey.
Elvis Costello, liner notes for the 2004 reissue of Almost Blue
Here’s the video of that performance. Maybe I just see this because I’m thinking of it, but June Carter Cash looks pleased as a punch with that improvised verse.
What I Like – I especially like Costello’s delivery of the line “I’m your old boy” both times it comes around.
Coming Soon: A couple of great albums make their first appearance on this list
Elvis Costello Singles Ranked – 111-116 – 101-110 – 91-100 – 81-90 – 71-80 – 61-70 – 51-60 – 41-50 – 31-40 – 21-30 – 11-20 – 1-10