Elvis Costello’s eight favourite songs of all time
Bob Dylan once said that the bespectacled barnstormer, Elvis Costello, was “light years better” than any of his peers. That’s praise you can dine out on for a lifetime.
However, it’s hardly praise that the slicked-back songsmith was starving for. Everyone from John Cooper Clarke to Lou Reed and Paul McCartney have adorned him with their adoration. With lines like this, how could you not: “The words of love are whispers and the acts of love are screams.” Or perhaps, “Everything is changing, and most it is wrong”.
These lines, coupled with the cut and thrust of puk adjacency in which he dealt, his slithering performances and his pertinent point-outs, have established the lad from Paddington as somewhat of a British national treasure. His wit and compositions somewhat defined English alternative songwriting.
In time, Costello came face to face with another such established touchpoint of intrinsic British culture in 1992 when he went on the iconic radio show, Desert Island Discs, for the usual rundown of lifetime achievements and musical preferences. During the meeting, Costello shared eight songs that he simply couldn’t live without. These tracks shine a light on a career that boasts some of the best moments in music history.
It’s impossible for us to oversell the importance BBC’s Desert Island Discs has in the dense tapestry of pop culture. It’s a time-honoured tradition that has seen Prime Ministers, world leaders and rock stars alike walk through its studio doors to be greeted with the idea of inescapable desert island desertion. Created by Roy Plomley way back in 1942, the format is always the same, each week a guest is invited by the host to choose the eight records they would take with them to said desert island.
As well as their eight discs, a complimentary collection of the complete works of Shakespeare and the bible, the star in question also gets to choose one luxury item and one book. It’s a tried and tested format which has always provided a keen insight into the life and times of those in question.
It was a premise that the always industrious Costello took advantage of. As his book, the singer picked a collection of works by James Thurber (if you don’t know him then lines like the following should give you a flavour of his Costello kinship: “Why do you have to be a nonconformist like everybody else?”).
He was equally stuffing the ballot box when he chose as his luxury item, an upright piano complete with a painting of Saint Barnabas Altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli. It’s the kind of ingenuity which made Costello a star, forward slash, crafty little bugger.
But what of Costello’s favourite records?
It’s an indication of the music that Costello would choose to pack in his suitcase. Not stuck to the mammoth list of 500 records Costello once deemed as essential that the singer compiled once upon a time, he alternatively opens up the spectrum of music to something a touch more classical with a great deal more reverence.
Costello instead of picking tracks steeped in the history of rock, excluding perhaps Frank Sinatra and definitely The Beatles, the singer-songwriter showed his musical chops were far beyond the pop sensibilities some of his own music had shown. It’s born out of his musical family, something he discusses with presenter Sue Lawley.
First up for discussion for Declan McManus, AKA Elvis Costello, was that name change. “As you just illustrated,” the ‘Oliver’s Army’ singer replied to a question he’s likely heard a thousand times over, “It’s a rather difficult name to say, particularly over the telephone, all the way through school I was tortured by teachers imitating the sound of an elastic band when saying my name.” Not a great spot to be in for an aspiring pop star.
It would also prove unhelpful when contacting record companies about his early work, often misunderstanding his name, so he decided to adopt his grandmother’s name, Costello. When his manager of the time, Jake Riviera, introduced him one day as Elvis, the name stuck. When pressed on whether he felt silly changing his name at 23, the singer, embodying his work, replied: “There was a sort of dare element to it.” Always looking to push the envelope, Costello had found his new name.
When faced with the possibility of being cast onto a desert island on his own, Lawley asks whether he would suffer from loneliness, “You wouldn’t sink into the depths of despair?” she asks. “Well, I don’t think that’s unhealthy; I do that anyway, even now,” replies Costello. It’s a matter that Lawley questions may have influenced his choices of discs.
Costello responds, “Yeah. It influenced the choice, particularly in the records I didn’t choose. If I had chosen, say what would be my favourite eight songs, if such a list could even exist as it changes minute to minute, it would be such a depressing experience that perhaps I wouldn’t be so resilient.”
It is the perfect way to introduce a series of records curated for his particular experience and speak to Costello as an artist. He has chosen dense pieces of music, layered enough to be lost in and imbued with the kind of intellectualism that he put into all his own work.
Below you can find the full list as well as a playlist of the tracks selected by Elvis Costello as essential. Make sure you visit the BBC to get all the information on all of the artists interviewed for the show and listen to Elvis Costello’s full Desert Island Discs appearance.
Evlis Costello favourite songs:
- ‘String Quartet No. 16 in F major, Op. 135’ – Ludwig van Beethoven
- ‘I’ve Got You Under My Skin’ – Frank Sinatra
- ‘At Last’ – Joe Loss Orchestra
- ‘Le nozze di Figaro (The Marriage of Figaro), opera, K. 492 Act 1, Scene 5, No 6’ – Mozart
- ‘You Really Got A Hold On Me’ – The Beatles
- ‘Sonata In B Flat, D. 960: I. Molto moderato’ – Franz Schubert
- ‘Dido’s Lament’ – Henry Purcell
- ‘Blood Count’ – Duke Ellington
