Tag Archives: Elvis Costello

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Song of the Day #6,303: ‘Poisoned Rose’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#3 – King of America – Elvis Costello

Last week I noted that Blood & Chocolate was one of two great albums Elvis Costello released in 1986. The other, King of America, might be the best thing he’s ever done.

Costello has had a prolific and wide-ranging career, dipping his toe in every conceivable genre and teaming up with a laundry list of unlikely collaborators. But I’ll be boring and say the early to mid-80s remains the high point of his impressive catalog. My three favorite Castello albums — Get Happy!!, Imperial Bedroom, and this one — all came out during that span.

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Song of the Day #6,298: ‘Crimes of Paris’ – Elvis Costello

Continuing a countdown of my favorite albums of 1986…

#6 – Blood & Chocolate – Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello had such a good 80s run that my #6 album of 1986 was just his second-best release that year. I’ll get to the other one next week.

After a series of genre exercises (country, baroque pop, 60s soul, New Wave, Americana), Blood & Chocolate was a muscular rock-n-roll album, Costello’s first since 19878’s This Year’s Model. When Costello snarls out the album’s title in the opening moments of first track ‘Uncomplicated’ to the strains of an aggressive electric guitar, you know you’re in for a wild ride.

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Song of the Day #6,000: ‘I Know (Live)’ – Elvis Costello

With apologies to Duran Duran, whose ‘The Wild Boys‘ would have been today’s Throwback Weekend selection, I’m suspending my usual programming to acknowledge another milestone for the blog.

Today is my 6,000th post, a number that frankly feels a little obscene. Have I really been doing this every day for 16 1/2 years? Apparently so.

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Song of the Day #5,280: ‘Hidden Shame (Demo)’ – Elvis Costello

‘Hidden Shame,’ heard here in demo form as included on Elvis Costello’s reissue of the 1996 album All This Useless Beauty, was originally written by Costello for Johnny Cash. Costello wrote a few songs for Cash, including ‘Complicated Shadows,’ one of Beauty‘s main tracks.

Cash never recorded ‘Complicated Shadows’ but he did record this one, on a 1990 album titled Boom Chicka Boom. That album — his 76th! — also included a cover of Harry Chapin’s ‘Cat’s in the Cradle.’

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Song of the Day #5,265: ‘The Invisible Man’ – Elvis Costello

‘The Invisible Man’ is a track from Elvis Costello’s 1983 release Punch the Clock, his eighth studio album. Costello teamed up with pop producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley to deliver his most commercial album, hoping for chart success that had largely eluded him to that point.

It worked, to a degree. Punch the Clock was his best-selling album in several years and produced a modest international hit in ‘Everyday I Write the Book.’ That song became his first Top 40 single in the U.S., and one of only two in his entire career (bonus points to commenters who can name the second).

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