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Elvis Costello - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Elvis Costello - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Hun Lee  |  by en.wikipedia.org. All rights reserved. 11.03 | 14:47

Declan Patrick MacManus (born , , in ), better known by his , Elvis Costello, is an musician, singer, and of ancestry.
His full given name is often listed as Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus; however, Aloysius was not one of his names at birth, being added years later, around the time of the release of King of America (typically, it was a tongue-in-cheek gesture, Aloysius being one of the middle names of the character that doomed English comic played in Hancock's Half Hour), when he toyed with the idea of changing his name back to Declan MacManus from his stage name.
Costello was an early participant in London's scene in the mid-1970s, and later became associated with the and musical genres, before establishing himself as a unique and original voice in the 1980s.

His output has been wildly diverse: One critic has written that "Costello, the encyclopedia, can reinvent the past in his own image" .
Declan MacManus was born in , in , and lived in , attending what is now 's Secondary School in neighbouring . With a musically inclined father (his father, , sang with ).

MacManus's first television appearance was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R.White's lemonade ("I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker".)
MacManus moved with his mother to in 1971.

It was there that he formed his first band, a folk duo called Rusty. After completing secondary school in Birkenhead, he moved back to London where he next formed a band called , which had a style very much in the pub rock vein. They were active from 1974 through early 1976.

Around this time, MacManus adopted the stage name D.P. Costello.


To support himself, he worked a number of office jobs, most famously at the Elizabeth Arden cosmetics firm - immortalized in the lyrics of I'm Not Angry as the "vanity factory" - where he worked as a data entry clerk. He continued to write songs, and began aggressively looking for a solo recording contract. On the basis of a demo tape, he was signed to noted independent label .

His manager at Stiff, , suggested a name change, using 's first name and his mother's maiden name to form Elvis Costello.
The first Costello single for Stiff was "Less Than Zero" b/w "Radio Sweetheart (single mix)," released on , . Two months later, Costello's first album, (1977), was a moderate commercial success (No.

14 in the UK and Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover in his trademark oversize glasses, bearing a striking resemblance to a menacing . A highlight of the album was the country-influenced ballad "Alison" with a typically biting Costello lyric. Costello's backing on this first album was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a roots/country outfit living in England.

Clover did not exactly become (Huey Lewis did play with Clover shortly before the recording of My Aim Is True, but he and Sean Hopper, who does play on My Aim Is True, struck out on their own and recruited a new band, mostly from a competing band, Soundhole). Costello was originally marketed as a artist. At the time, there was no term to distinguish punk bands like and the from other so-called punk bands like Elvis Costello and .

Later on, as the term was applied to the first post-punk bands, Costello was new wave - for a couple of albums, anyway.
The same year, Costello recruited via auditions his own permanent band, , consisting of (born Steve Nason; piano), (bass guitar), and (unrelated to Bruce Thomas; drums). He released his first major hit single, "Watching The Detectives," which was recorded with Nieve and the pair of Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass), both members of The Rumour (whom he had used to audition for The Attractions).


Stiff's records were initially distributed only in the UK, which meant that Costello's first album and singles were initially available in the US as imports only. In an attempt to change this, Costello was arrested for outside of a London convention of CBS (Columbia Records) executives, "protesting" that no US record company had yet seen fit to release Elvis Costello records in the United States. Costello signed to CBS in the US a few months later.


In December 1977, Costello and The Attractions appeared on as a last minute fill-in for the Sex Pistols, but Costello ended up causing some controversy himself; see " " for the tale of that evening. Following a whirlwind tour with other Stiff artists (captured on the Live Stiffs album, notable for Costello's recording of the / standard "I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself") the band recorded the frenetic, raucous (1978). Some of the more popular tracks include the British hit "(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea" and the subversively anthemic "Pump It Up".

His U.S. record company saw Costello as such a priority that his last name replaced the word "Columbia" on the label of the disc's original pressing.


A tour of the US and Canada also saw the release of the much bootlegged promo-only "Live at the El Mocambo," which finally saw an official release as part of the "2½ Years" box set in 1993. It was during the ensuing United States tour that Elvis met and developed a relationship with former Playboy model, (mother of ). Their on-again-off-again courtship would last until 1984 and would allegedly become a deep well of inspiration for some of Costello's most lovelorn songs.


1979 would arguably see the peak of Costello's commercial success with the release of (originally to have been titled Emotional Fascism, a phrase that appeared on the LP's inner sleeve). Both the album and the single went to #2 in the UK. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album for revival band, .


Elvis Costello, King of America.

The soul-infused would be the first, and - along with - possibly most successful, of Costello's many experiments with genres beyond those he is normally associated with. The single, "I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down" was an old song (though Costello increased the considerably).

The brevity of the songs (20 tracks in under 50 minutes) suited the band's new style (the Thomas' typically melodic rhythm section and Nieve's reasonable impersonation of ) as well as the frantic and stressful conditions under which it was written and recorded, crammed between live dates and fuelled by excessive drinking. Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature , to the point that he later felt he'd become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases. He has mockingly described himself in interviews as "rock and roll's Scrabble champion.

" The only 1980 appearance in North America was at the festival in August near Toronto.
1981's had a more sound, but the overall result was clearly affected by the growing tensions within the band, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. Despite its eclecticism ("Different Finger" had a distinct feel) and pop hooks, Trust was not a major success and the first album since his debut to generate no hit singles.

Following the commercial disappointment of Trust, Costello took a break from songwriting and the band decamped to to record , an album of written by the likes of ("Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used To Do?)"), ("Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down") and ("How Much I Lied"). It was not a country-rock album (a la or ), which might have been more palatable to his established audience and to reviewers, but rather an undiluted country album.

It received mixed reviews, some of which accused Costello of growing soft. Perhaps in anticipation of the inevitable accusations of apostasy, the first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: "WARNING: This album contains country western music and may cause offence to narrow minded listeners". Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of 's "Good Year For The Roses" (written by ).


(1982) marked a much darker, almost sound for Costello, due in large part to the production of , famed for engineering several records. Featuring a superior set of songs - both musically and lyrically - it remains one of his most critically acclaimed records but again failed to produce any hit singles. Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album, weak ads consisting only of the phrase "Masterpiece?

". Imperial Bedroom also featured Costello's song "Almost Blue"; jazz singer and trumpeter would later perform and record a beautifully morose version of this song.
1983 saw another sidetrack with the pop-soul of , featuring female backing vocals ( ) and a four piece ( ), alongside The Attractions.

Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became " ", an oblique and articulate look at the political contradictions of the : The controversial military build-up provided jobs for Britain's struggling shipyards. The song featured a striking solo by . (Prior to the release of Costello's own version, an affecting, emotive version of the song was a minor UK hit for former drummer and political activist ).

Equally political was "Pills And Soap" — a UK hit for Costello himself under the pseudonym of "The Imposter" — an attack on the changes in British society brought on by , released to coincide with the run-up to the . (The electorate was seemingly unswayed.) Punch the Clock also generated an international hit in the single "Everyday I Write the Book", aided by a prophetic music video featuring lookalikes of the and undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home.


Tensions within the band were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the disbandment of the group shortly before they were to record (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had "got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution". With a number of poor songs (and even the better songs harmed by murky production), the record was poorly received upon its initial release, and even many ardent Costello fans see Goodbye as his weakest album (the liner notes to the 1995 Rykodisc re-release, penned by Costello, begin with 'Congratulations!

, you've just purchased our worst album'). Despite the record's poor reputation, a few songs were well-regarded, such as "The Comedians" (later recorded, with rewritten lyrics, by ). On the album's second single, "The Only Flame in Town", of shared lead vocals.

Costello's retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, Elvis Costello: The Man in the UK, Europe and Australia and in the US.
In 1985 he appeared in the "Live Aid" benefit concert in England, singing The Beatles 'All you Need is Love' - inevitably, the event was overrunning and Costello was asked to 'ditch the band', not a popular move with the Attractions. Judging from the fact that photographs at the event show that he had scrawled the lyrics on the back of his hand, this was not overly rehearsed.


In the same year Costello teamed up with good friend for a single called "The People's Limousine" under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced for the punk/folk band . It was then that he met his second wife, Pogues bassist .


By 1986, Costello was preparing to make a comeback. Working in the US with Burnett, a band containing a number of 's sidemen (including and ), and minor input from the Attractions, he produced King of America an acoustic-guitar-driven album with a country sound. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan MacManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name.

The Attractions felt understandably insecure about their dispensability upon perceiving that their boss had cut a new album largely without them, and was planning to undertake a major tour showcasing the King of America material with his new musical partners. To allay their fears, Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city; playing one night with The Confederates (James Burton et al.), one night with The Attractions, and one night solo acoustic.


Later that year, he returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded , which was lauded for a post-punk fervor not heard since 1978's . It also marked the return of producer , who had produced Costello's first five albums. While failed to chart a hit single of any significance, it did produce what has since become one of Costello's signature concert songs — "I Want You".

It is on this album that Costello adopted the alias " ", the name he later attributed to the character of the obnoxious that he played during the -style tour to support Blood and Chocolate. (The pseudonym had previously been used in 1982, when the B-side single "Imperial Bedroom" was credited to Napoleon Dynamite The Royal Guard.)
In 1989 Costello, with a new contract with , released .

The album was perhaps his most accessible pop recording, and it spawned his biggest single in America, the Top Ten hit "Veronica", one of several songs Costello co-wrote with in that timeframe (see "Collaborations" section below).
Elvis Costello in a promotional photo for 2002's "When I Was Cruel."

In 1991, infamously having grown a long beard, Costello released , which featured the single "The Other Side of Summer".

He also found time to co-compose and co-produce, with Richard Harvey, the title and incidental music for the acclaimed mini-series by . This entirely instrumental, and largely orchestral soundtrack garnered a , for "Best Music for a TV Series" for the pair.
In 1993, Costello tested the classical music waters with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the on .

Costello returned to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with The Attractions, .
In 1995, Costello released , an album of cover songs recorded 5 years earlier, and followed in 1996 with an album of songs originally written for other artists, . This was the final album of original material that he issued under his Warner Bros.

contract. In the spring of 1996, Costello played a series of intimate club dates, backed only by Nieve on the piano, in support of All This Useless Beauty. An ensuing summer and fall tour with the Attractions proved to be the death knell for the band.

With relations between Elvis and bassist Bruce Thomas at a breaking point, Costello announced that the current tour would be the Attractions' last. The quartet performed their final U.S.

show in on , , before wrapping up their tour in Japan.
To fulfill his contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Costello released a greatest hits album titled Extreme Honey (1997).

It contained an original track titled "The Bridge I Burned", featuring Elvis' son, Matt, on bass.
In the intervening period, Costello also served as artistic chair for the 1995 , which gave him the opportunity to leverage his increasingly eclectic musical interests. His involvement in the festival yielded a one-off live EP with jazz guitarist , which featured both cover material and a few of his own songs.


In 1998, Costello signed a unique multi-label contract with , sold by its parent company the same year to become part of the . Costello released his new work on what he deemed the suitable imprimatur within the family of labels. His first new release as part of this contract involved a collaboration with famed sixties pop songwriter .

Their work had commenced earlier, in 1996, on a song called "God Give Me Strength" for the movie Grace of My Heart. This led the pair to write and record , released under his new contract in 1998, on the label. They also recorded an updated version of Bacharach's song for the soundtrack to , with both appearing in the film to perform the song.


In 1999, Costello contributed a cover version of the 1974 song " ", originally by and , for the soundtrack of the film , with producing. For the 25th anniversary of , Costello was invited to the program, where he re-enacted his abrupt song-switch: This time, however, he interrupted the ' "Sabotage", and they acted as his backing group for "Radio Radio."
Costello performing with The Imposters in 2005.

In 2001, Costello was announced as the featured "artist in residence" at (although he ended up making fewer appearances than expected) and wrote the music for a new ballet. He produced and appeared on an album of songs for , For The Stars. Appropriately enough, this album came out on .


In 2002 he released a new album, , this time on , and toured with a new band, the Imposters (essentially the Attractions but with a different bass player, , formerly of ). On February 23rd, 2003, Costello, along with , , and performed a version of 's " " at the 45th Grammy Awards ceremony, in honor of legendary Clash frontman , who had died in December of the previous year. In March 2003, Elvis Costello The Attractions were inducted into the .

In May, his engagement to singer and was announced. September saw the release of , an album of piano-based ballads concerning the breakdown of his former marriage, and his falling in love with singer .
In 2004, the song "Scarlet Tide" (co-written by Costello and T-Bone Burnett and used in the film ) was nominated for an ; he performed it at the awards ceremony with , who also sang the song on the official soundtrack.

Costello co-wrote many songs on wife 's 2004 CD, , the first of hers to feature several original compositions. In July 2004 Costello's first full-scale orchestral work, Il Sogno, was performed in New York. The work, a ballet after 's , was commissioned by Italian dance troupe Aterballeto, and received critical acclaim from the classical music critics, while being scorned by the popular music press.


While composing it, Costello deliberately avoided listening to the previous interpretations by and in order to ensure his own originality. A range of musical moods and styles are used to represent the different elements of the cast - satirical pomp for the courtiers, for the faeries, and for a deliberately intrusive "brass band" motif. Performed by the , conducted by , the recording was released on CD in September by .


Costello released another album that same month: , recorded in , and released on . Mainly blues, country, and folk, The Delivery Man received early acclaim as one of Costello's best albums, and continues Costello's personal quest to release an album on each of Universal's record labels.
In July 2005, a CD recording of a collaboration with on her show was released.

It featured Costello singing six jazz standards and two of his own songs, accompanied by Marian McPartland on piano. In November 2005 Costello started recording a new album with and producer . The River in Reverse was released in the UK on the label on .

Also released in 2006 was a live recording of a concert with the at the , entitled My Flame Burns Blue.
Costello has been commissioned to write a by the Danish Royal Opera, , on the subject of 's infatuation with Swedish soprano , called The Secret Songs. Some of the songs were previewed on the Opera's main stage in October 2005.

However, since Costello has repeatedly missed deadlines, plans have been changed: extracts from the projected opera will be interspersed with songs from The Juliet Letters for performance in the Opera's studio theatre (Takelloftet) in March 2007. It will be directed by and will feature Danish soprano Sine Bundgaard as Lind.
Costello's success in the U.

S. was bruised for a time in the late 1970s when, during a drunken argument with and in a , hotel bar, Costello referred to as a "jive-ass ," then upped the ante by pronouncing a "blind, ignorant nigger."
Bramlett and friends had evidently been baiting Costello with derisive comments about British rock music in general and "sawed-off Limey"-type comments aimed at him in particular.

A contrite Costello apologized at a press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." In his liner notes for the expanded version of , Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello ("Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper").

In a Rolling Stone interview with Greil Marcus , he recounts an incident when Bruce Thomas was introduced to Michael Jackson as Costello's bass player and Jackson saying, "I don't dig that guy...

".
It is notable that Costello worked extensively in Britain's campaign both before and after this interlude and also produced the debut album of the Specials whose multi-racial line-up was a very public statement about integration. This incident specifically inspired his Get Happy!

song "Riot Act" .

  • In 1974, MacManus married Mary Burgoyne. The couple had a son, Matthew, and split up in 1984.

  • In 1986, Costello married , then bassist for the band . The couple split at the end of 2002.
  • Costello became engaged to singer in May 2003.

    In December, Costello and Krall married at the London estate of Sir . Their twin sons Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James were born December 6, 2006 in New York City.

    • In addition to his major recorded collaborations with Bacharach, the Brodsky Quartet, and von Otter, Costello has frequently been involved in other collaborations.


    In 1987, Costello began a long-running songwriting collaboration with . They wrote a number of songs together, including:

  • Costello's "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" from (1989)
  • In 1989, he appeared on the special , which featured his long-time idol , and was invited back to for the first time since 1977.
    • While many musicians embrace myriad types of music as influences and preferences, few if any popular music artists have displayed the same level of determination and rigor in successfully pursuing projects encompassing such a wide stylistic range as Costello.

    From the and influenced Get Happy!! to the straight of Almost Blue, the mid-1960s Beatles and influenced soundscapes of Imperial Bedroom to the recital of The Juliet Letters, the of his album with and My Flame Burns Blue to the classical ballet score of Il Sogno, eclectic only begins to describe Costello's work.


    His eclecticism extends to his choice of collaborators; he has worked with , , , and , just a few of the artists not mentioned above. Costello has inadvertently made himself capable of challenging 's role in a musical version of the game, as his associations span the gamut in the music industry.
    Costello is also a big music fan, and often champions the works of others in print.

    He has written several pieces for the magazine "Vanity Fair", including the summary of what a perfect weekend of music would be. His collaboration with Bacharach honored Bacharach's place in pop music history. Costello also appeared in a documentary about singer .

    He has also interviewed one of his own influences, .

  • The first artist to cover Costello in the USA was , who cut " " in 1978. She followed in 1980 with interpretations of "Party Girl", "Talking in the Dark" and "Girl's Talk" from her album .

    At first publicly unwelcome to this mainstream notoriety, he has since praised her for giving him such initial exposure in the USA. He frequently collaborates with Ronstadt's long-time musical partner .

  • Costello has a global music publishing deal with for his back catalogue and current/future works.

  • Costello has made cameo appearances in such major American motion pictures as and, more recently, . (For a complete listing, see the filmography below.)
  • In the book by Jennifer Crusie, Elvis Costello is the favorite singer of both Cal and Shanna.

    Less than Zero, one of the songs from his debut, 'My Aim is True' is also the title track of Bret Easton Ellis's first novel.

  • Unusually for a rock musician entering the world of classical composition, Elvis Costello neither had early classical music training (e.g.

    Joe Jackson) nor relied on computers or professional help with scoring and arranging (e.g. Paul McCartney) - he spent a number of years in the late 1990s studying composition and orchestration.

  • The song "Elvis, I Don't Love You Anymore" by is about Costello, and directly names several of his albums in the lyrics.
  • In 2004, ranked him #80 on their list of the .
  • Desperate Housewives character Mike Delfino (played by James Denton) cites Costello as his favorite artist in the first season.

    • From 1993 to 1995, (US) and (UK) reissued Costello's pre- catalogue with bonus tracks for each album as well as a greatest hits compilation and the live album Live at the El Mocambo. In addition, Rykodisc were the US distributer for The Juliet Letters. This licensing deal ended in 2000.


    Starting in 2001, began an eighteen double-disc reissue program for Costello's back catalogue prior to his Polygram/Universal contract. Except for the compilation, each of the reissues presented the original album on one disc, and a separate bonus disc of B-sides, outtakes, live tracks, alternate versions and/or demos of songs.
    The project featured the direct participation and guidance of Elvis Costello himself, who wrote new liner notes for each album consisting of his thoughts on the music as well as anecdotes and reminiscences from the time.

    They were released in batches of three, with the exception of King of America, The Juliet Letters, and , the last being an unaltered re-release of the Polygram compilation of 1999, which arrived in the stores singularly. The reissue dates are as follows:
    The Almost Blue and Kojak Variety bonus discs were particularly notable as each contained, essentially, an entire new album's worth of material also performed but either not issued, or released as on singles originally. The Kojak bonus disc also included ten songs of the ' ' tape, cover songs Costello intended to induce the famed country singer to perform on a subsequent album.

    The Get Happy bonus disc was also of note, with 30 additional tracks, bringing the total for the two disc set to 50 songs.
    In August 2006, three months after the conclusion of Rhino's reissue series (My Aim Is True through The Juliet Letters), announced their purchase of the early Elvis Costello catalog. This licensing acquisition covers from My Aim Is True through King of America, excluding the albums (Spike through All This Useless Beauty).

    These albums had all been re-released on Rhino, a subsidiary. The press release says, "[l]eading the industry in online marketing with a dedicated department that manages its digital and mobile business, UMe also expects to mine Costello's catalog for ringtones, digital box sets, and more." UMe announced that they would be reissuing the albums on their label.

    Costello is quoted in the press release as saying, "[I]t's great to be able to do this through a company that has not only enjoyed major success with reissues but has done them with a genuine emphasis on quality." This reissue series will mark the fourth release of his Stiff/Radar/Demon catalog (released by in the US) on compact disc.

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    Keywords: Elvis Costello, Don t, My Aim, Juliet Letters, Almost Blue, Imperial Bedroom, i Don, Declan Macmanus, i Don t, Useless Beauty
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