Everything but the Girl

BY: PROVOKR Editors

The British pop duo of Tracey Thorn and Ben Watts, two University of Hull students who formed Everything but the Girl in 1982, named themselves after a window sign in a furniture shop that read: “For your bedroom needs, we sell everything but the girl.” They were part of a jazz-pop sound known as “sophisti-pop,” most readily identified with Sade. The couple, who mostly kept their relationship private, eventually married and are raising their three children out of the limelight. After a long and productive run recording music together as Everything but the Girl, they decided in 1999 put the group on hold, where it has remained ever since. Meanwhile, they continue to do behind-the-scenes studio work and collaborations with other artists. But here at PROVOKR, we can’t stop listening to songs like “Wrong” (see the music-video, above), or (sampled below) “Missing,” “I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love” and their cover of Tom Waits’s “Downtown Train.” When it comes to your “bedroom needs,” there’s nothing like them.

Todd Terry 1995 club remix of “Missing,” written and performed by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watts, originally from Everything but the Girl’s 1994 album Amplified Heart.

Everything but the Girl performs “I Didn’t Know I Was Looking for Love” (1993), written by Tracey Thorn and Ben Watts, from the EP of the same title. The video is a Peter Lindbergh shoot for Lancôme at the Louvre in Paris, with Isabella Rossellini.

Everything but the Girl performs Tom Waits’s song “Downtown Train” (1992), from their album Acoustic.