Less Than Zero. Regardless, the sweeping crescendo of piano and voice?Costello’s lilting melodies here can draw tears if you’re not careful?represents one of the more perfect arrangements of Costello’s ’90s catalog. Every fan’s list of the best Elvis Costello songs is bound to vary, but here we’ve collected 20 can’t-miss tracks that cover most of his catalog and much of the stylistic ground he’s traversed. Imperial Bedroom According to reports, Costello’s interchanging of different colored lenses settled on blue for a while, unknowingly triggering a psychological depression. Co-written by T Bone Burnett and made famous by Allison Krauss’ performance of it in the 2003 film Cold Mountain, “The Scarlet Tide” is the sound of the bridging of the gap between Costello’s early ’00s bluegrass leanings and the abstract lyrical depth that’s made him famous. The musician released plenty of excellent albums, gaining the listeners’ sympathy due to his sincere creativity. He began his career as part of London's pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk/New Wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s. The album received good commercial success. The greatest hit by Elvis Costello was 1983 number 12 song Everyday I Write The Book. 2006. Around Paste HQ, we've been patiently waiting for National Ransom , Elvis Costello's latest, and last week he teased us with the title track . NME (Magazine): Ranked #41 in NME's list of The 50 Greatest Albums Of The '80s. No matter what musical direction he heads in, there are a handful of signature songs that Costello can never get offstage without playing. The song’s descending chords at the capable fingers of Steve Nieve are like a carnival train headed off the rails; and Bruce Thomas’ deft bass playing is solid goddamn gold. Fueled by amphetamines and vintage vinyl, he and the Attractions jumped into 60s soul for the 20-track epic Get Happy! In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Burt Bacharach. -- Elvis Costello . Elvis Costello Surname: Costello Wednesday, August 25, 1954 Elvis Costello is the most famous person named Elvis. The young Costello famously said (in the lyric of “Radio Radio”) that he wanted to bite the hand that fed him, and few songs accomplished that better than “Clubland.” A double-edged song if there ever was one, its lyrics cast a cynical eye at the excesses of nightclub culture and early-80s style – but the song was so bright and upbeat (with a reggae groove influenced by The Police) that those same nightclubs played it to death. Once you dip into his discography, you’ll keep discovering more reasons why Elvis is king. His best-known songs included ‘(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes’ and ‘Everyday I Write the Book.’ Learn more about his life and music. Armed Forces Elvis Costello covered Medley and You Win Again. “High Fidelity” earns a place here as Costello’s most danceable track. Elvis Costello & The Attractions was a critically acclaimed pop and rock band formed by English musican Elvis Costello in 1977. Contributing editor editor Jim Beviglia ranks the top 50 songs by Elvis Costello - from "Alison" to "Veronica" and more. This, like a lot of Costello’s songs, somehow suffers on a larger scale due to its advanced cleverness. But Costello’s fearlessness in singing the sorrows of an inexperienced lover showed his storytelling depth early on. By the mid-’80s, Costello and the Attractions had weathered through stylistic shapeshifting and traveled full-circle out of country and western and deep New Wave experimentations back toward the bread and butter of This Year’s Model-style pop. Few songwriters have covered as much ground as Elvis Costello has in the past four decades: He’s done classical, opera, jazz, country, and classic pop, and still rocks with a vengeance when he’s in the mood. When people say, ‘You’re looking at the world through rose-colored glasses,’ well, I have no idea what rose ones do, but I know what blue ones do. Think we’ve missed one of the best Elvis Costello songs? Elvis Costello, the first new artist signed to Stiff Records back in 1977, is one of the UK's finest songwriters.Here Martin Chilton picks his 40 best songs. He famously cut off the intro of “Less Than Zero” during a live performance on Saturday Night Live in 1977 to perform “Radio Radio,” despite the producers’ strict forbiddance, earning him a lifetime ban from the show. Purported to have been inspired by Costello’s observances of young boys in battle gear during a trip to Belfast in the late ’70s, “Oliver’s Army” remains one of the catchiest songs written to date that manages to also infuse the rancor of anti-occupation themes. As opener to 1996’s subdued classic All This Useless Beauty, “The Other End of the Telescope” ushered in yet another chapter of Costello and the Attractions’ oeuvre, pitting heavy piano ballads and psychedelic guitar runs to accompany a lover’s longing at arm’s length. My Aim Is True Costello has recorded some of these songs -- "Girls Talk" (Dave Edmunds), "All Grown Up" (Tasmin Archer), "Shipbuilding" (Robert Wyatt), "The Other End (Of the Telescope)" ('Til Tuesday), "Almost Blue" (Chet Baker), "Indoor Fireworks" (Nick Lowe) -- but the main value for Costello collectors is that it gathers many songs that he has written but never officially recorded. Taking Liberties Blood And Chocolate Enjoy the best Elvis Costello Quotes at BrainyQuote. Without a doubt the scariest love song in his catalog, “I Want You” is nearly seven minutes of pure obsession, a stalker song where the singer’s devotion gets more extreme as it goes along. Your email address will not be published. There are live versions popping around of “Accidents Will Happen” that bring down the quick strides of the studio version from 1979’s Armed Forces, relegating the tune to more of a solo piano number, with Costello’s husky vox anchoring the hull of the shell of the song. Originally lumped in as part of the punk and New Wave movements due to his short, angry songs… On his second album not to be produced by Nick Lowe?following the all-country covers LP Almost Blue?Costello and the Attractions had no preconceived production blueprints or direction for 1982’s Imperial Bedroom as a whole, which made the sequential pairing of tunes like “Tears Before Bedtime” and “Shabby Doll” intriguing, if not head-scratching. Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter. If you’re looking for a late-night ballad album that goes straight for the heart, try this one. Easily Costello’s most recognizable song, “Pump It Up” is one of the few he’s written whose core lovability can be boiled down to the fact that it’s just a great, peppy punk dance rocker. The classic from these sessions was the first they wrote together, “God Give Me Strength.” Written for Allison Anders’ film Grace of My Heart – a loosely fictionalized story of the 60s songwriting hotbed the Brill Building – it seamlessly matched Bacharach’s melodic grace with the emotional intensity of all the best Elvis Costello songs.