b. Declan Patrick McManus, 25 August 1954, Paddington, London, England, and after attending Hounslow Secondary Modern moved with his mother to Liverpool. His father was the singer and band leader Ross McManus, a featured vocalist with the Joe Loss Orchestra and the voice behind the R. Whites ‘Secret Lemonade Drinker’ commercial. After completing his education and moving back to London, Costello took the first of several menial jobs. By this point in time (the early 70s) he had begun singing in folk clubs, both as a solo artist and with fellow musician Allan Mayes in Rusty. In 1974 he formed the pub rock outfit Flip City with his friends Mich Kent and Malcolm Dennis, and in November of the same year married for the first time. By the end of the following year Flip City had folded, and Costello was forced to take a job as a computer operator for the Elizabeth Arden factory in Acton. He went back to performing as a solo artist, billing himself as DP Costello (the surname was his paternal great-grandmother’s maiden name). The aspiring singer-songwriter toured A&R offices giving impromptu performances, but a projected contract with Island Records fell through. He was eventually signed as a solo act to Dave Robinson and Jake Riveria’s pioneering Stiff Records label. Riveria became his manager and persuaded the singer to change his name to Elvis Costello - the adoption of the christian name of a rock ‘n’ roll icon was considered a provocative statement at the time.
Elvis Costello first came to prominence during the UK punk era in the late 70s. While appealing to the new wave market, the sensitive issues he wrote about, combined with the structures in which he composed them, indicated a major talent that would survive and outgrow this musical generation. Costello failed to chart with his early releases, which included the anti-fascist ‘Less Than Zero’ and the sublime ballad ‘Alison’. His Nick Lowe -produced debut, My Aim Is True, featured members of the cult west coast band Clover, who in turn had Huey Lewis as their vocalist. The album introduced a new pinnacle in late 70s songwriting. Costello spat, shouted and crooned through a cornucopia of radical issues, producing a set that was instantly hailed by the critics.
Costello’s first hit single, ‘Watching The Detectives’, contained scathing verses about wife-beating over a beautifully simple reggae beat. His new band, the Attractions, gave Costello a solid base: the combination of Bruce Thomas (b. 14 August 1948, Stockton-on-Tees, North Yorkshire, England; bass), ex-Chilli Willi And The Red Hot Peppers’ drummer Pete Thomas (b. 9 August 1954, Sheffield, Yorkshire, England) and Steve Nieve (b. Steven Nason, 19 February 1958, London, England; keyboards), became an integral part of the Costello sound. The Attractions and the continuing presence of producer Lowe provided the backing on the strong follow-up, This Year’s Model, and further magnificent singles ensued prior to the release of another landmark album, Armed Forces. This vitriolic 1979 collection narrowly missed the coveted number 1 position in the UK and reached the Top 10 in the USA. ‘Oliver’s Army’, a major hit taken from the album, was a bitter attack on the mercenary soldier, sung over a contrastingly upbeat tune with Nieve’s distinctive piano part inspired by Abba’s ‘Dancing Queen’. However, Costello’s standing across the Atlantic was seriously dented by his regrettably flippant (and drunken) dismissal of Ray Charles as ‘an ignorant, blind nigger’, an opinion he immediately recanted.
By the end of the, 70s Costello was firmly established as both performer and songwriter, with Linda Ronstadt and Dave Edmunds having success with his compositions. In 1980 he released the soul-influenced Get Happy!!, another fine album which, however, failed to repeat the sales success of Armed Forces. The increasingly fraught nature of the Attractions’ recording sessions informed the abrasive follow-up, Trust, and during the same year Costello elected to relocate to Nashville to record a country covers album, Almost Blue, with the Attractions and legendary producer Billy Sherrill. A version of George Jones’ ‘Good Year For The Roses’ became the album’s major UK hit, although a superb reading of Patsy Cline’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ was a comparative failure.
The following year, with seven albums already behind him, the prolific Costello returned to his own material and teamed up with Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick on the outstanding collection, Imperial Bedroom. Many of the songs herein were romantic excursions into mistrust and deceit, including ‘The Long Honeymoon’, ‘Man Out Of Time’ and ‘Tears Before Bedtime’. The fast paced ‘Beyond Belief’ was a perfect example of vintage Costello lyricism: ‘History repeats the old conceits/the glib replies the same defeats/keep your finger on important issues with crocodile tears and a pocketful of tissues’. That year Robert Wyatt recorded possibly the best-ever interpretation of a Costello song. The superlative ‘Shipbuilding’ (with music by Clive Langer) offered an imposingly subtle indictment of the Falklands War, with Wyatt’s strained voice giving extra depth to Costello’s seamless lyric. Costello’s own version of the song featured a beautiful solo from jazz trumpeter Chet Baker. The next year Costello as the Imposter released ‘Pills And Soap’, a similar theme cleverly masking a bellicose attack on Thatcherism.
Both Punch The Clock (1983) and Goodbye Cruel World (1984) favoured a rich production sound, courtesy of Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley. The prolific Costello also found the time to produce albums by the Specials, Squeeze, the Bluebells and the Pogues (where he met future wife, Cait O’Riordan), and during 1984 played a retarded brother on BBC television in Alan Bleasdale’s Scully, which would not be the last time he would attempt a low-key acting career. The following year Costello took to a different stage at Live Aid, and in front of millions sang John Lennon’s ‘All You Need Is Love’. His cover version of the Animals’ ‘Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’ was a minor hit in 1986 and during another punishing year, Costello released two albums. First was the rock ‘n’ roll-influenced King Of America (billed as The Costello Show Featuring The Attractions And Confederates), with notable production from T-Bone Burnett and contributions from veteran American session musicians including James Burton, Earl Palmer, and Jerry Scheff. Then, reunited with the Attractions (who, barring Nieve, had made minimal contributions to King Of America) and producer Nick Lowe, Costello stalled with the quickly recorded but ultimately less successful Blood & Chocolate. The album did contain a couple of geniune Costello classics in the opening ‘Uncomplicated’ and the frighteningly intense ‘I Want You’.
Towards the end of the 80s Costello collaborated with Paul McCartney, co-writing a number of songs for the latter’s well-received Flowers In The Dirt. A new recording contract with Warner Brothers Records was now in place, and Costello returned after a brief hiatus (by his standards) with the eclectic Spike in 1989, which featured his biggest US hit in ‘Veronica’. During 1990, he wrote and sang with Roger McGuinn for his 1991 comeback album Back To Rio. The same year, a hirsute Costello co-wrote the soundtrack to the controversial television series G.B.H. (written by Alan Bleasdale) and delivered the interesting Mighty Like A Rose. With lyrics as sharp as any of his previous work, this introspective and reflective album had Costello denying he was ever cynical - merely realistic. His perplexing collaboration with the classical string quartet the Brodsky Quartet in 1993 was a brave yet commercially ignored outing, with tracks such as ‘I Almost Had A Weakness’, ‘This Sad Burlesque’, ‘and ‘The First To Leave’ among the finest songs of his career. Costello and the Brodsky Quartet would continue to collaborate over the next decade, indicating the mutual respect between the playes.
The 1994 ‘pop’ album Brutal Youth brought Costello back to critical approbation and reunited him with the Attractions, but the renunion quickly broke down as old differences surfaced. Kojak Variety was a second album of cover versions recorded in 1991 but released four years later, with selections from major artists such as ‘Screamin’ Jay’ Hawkins, Bob Dylan, Willie Dixon, Ray Davies, and Burt Bacharach and Hal David. During the same year, Costello teamed up with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell on the live set Deep Dead Blue, an indication of his growing restlessness with the pop scene. The new studio set, All This Useless Beauty (again with the Attractions), although containing songs offered to or recorded by other artists, was as lyrically sharp as ever. The Extreme Honey compilation marked the end of Costello’s contract with Warners. Collecting a varied selection of material, the album included a new track, ‘The Bridge I Burned’, which demonstrated that Costello’s creative abilities were as sharp as ever.
Costello signed a worldwide recording contract with PolyGram Records in February 1998. Following their collaboration on the track ‘God Give Me Strength’, featured in the 1996 movie Grace Of My Heart, Costello and songwriting legend Burt Bacharach joined forces on 1998’s Painted From Memory: The New Songs Of Bacharach & Costello, a finely crafted collection of ballads. ‘I Still Have That Other Girl’ won a 1999 Grammy for Best Pop Collaboration With Vocals. The two worked together again on a cover version of Bacharach and David’s ‘I’ll Never Fall In Love Again’ for the soundtrack to Mike Myers’ Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. Costello’s cover version of Charles Aznavour’s ‘She’ also figured prominently in the Hugh Grant/Julia Roberts film, Notting Hill, and returned the singer to the UK Top 20 in July. The following year he composed the orchestral score for Italian ballet troupe Aterballeto’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A stirring collaboration with opera singer Anne Sofie Van Otter in 2001 preceded the ‘pop’ album, When I Was Cruel. The latter featured his new backing band the Imposters, featuring Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve from the Attractions, and former Cracker bass player Davey Faragher.
Following the break-up of his marriage to O’Riordan and the start of a new romance with jazz performer Diana Krall, Costello surprised even his most loyal fans by recording an album of crooning love songs. North, which received some unnecessarily vocal criticism from certain sections of the press, was clearly influenced by Krall. In December 2003, Costello celebrated his third marriage when he wed Krall in a private ceremony at Elton John’s UK mansion. The following year he celebrated his 50th birthday and released two new albums on the same day. The Delivery Man, credited to Elvis Costello And The Imposters, was recorded in Mississippi with Nieve, Pete Thomas and Faragher. The attendant Il Sogno was the artist’s first full-scale orchestral work, featuring the London Symphony Orchestra’s recording of the music originally commissioned for Aterballeto’s adaptation of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. The live recording My Flame Burns Blue, released in 2006, was a further move into ‘grown up’ music, a tag Costello detests. Accompanied by Nieve and the Metropole Orkest, Costello performed numbers from his back catalogue. It was pure lounge music, but clearly demonstrated the power and range of his vocals. The same year Costello recorded a duo album with famed New Orleans songwriter Allen Toussaint, which received strong reviews and was nominated for a Grammy Award. In 2008, Costello and the Imposters returned with Momofuku. Ever the arch careerist, Costello originally announced the album was only going to be released on vinyl and as a download, although a CD version followed shortly afterwards. However the album was released, it contained some of Costello’s best straight rock songs for some time, notably the opening trilogy of ‘No Hiding Place’, ‘American Gangster Time’, and ‘Turpentine’.
Although Costello no longer tops the charts he remains a critics’ favourite, and is without doubt one of the finest songwriter/lyricists England has ever produced. His contribution was acknowledged in 1996 when he collected Q Magazine’s songwriter award, and seven years later when he was inducted into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame. His left-of-centre political views have not clouded his horizon and he is now able to assimilate all his musical influences and to some degree, rightly indulge himself.
