Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!: Day 328 - Elvis Costello

Girls Girls Girls - Elvis Costello

Demon

Released 1989

UK Chart #67

Album Notes

This compilation was released in three formats: Double Vinyl Album, 2CD and Double Cassette. All three had different tracklistings and the amount of songs. I have included all the songs above in the playlist. Each format also had songs that were exclusive to it:

Double Vinyl - 31 Tracks

2 Songs Exclusive to it:

I'll Wear It Proudly

Stranger In The House 

2CD Tracklisting

2CD - 47 Tracks

9 Songs Exclusive to it:

Uncomplicated

Black and White World

Big Sister's Clothes

Motel Matches

Tiny Steps

Love Field

Possession

Sunday's Best

Less Than Zero

Double Cassette Cover

Double Cassette - 51 Tracks

15 Songs Exclusive to it:

Honey, Are You Straight or Are You Blind?

Girls Talk

Poor Napoleon

Home Is Anywhere You Hang Your Head

Turning the Town Red

Sleep of the Just

Our Little Angel

The Long Honeymoon

Crimes of Paris

Jack of All Parades

Little Palaces

Night Rally

American Without Tears

Suit of Lights

Clowntime is Over

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(Elvis Costello in Derry 2013. Photo from The Belfast Telegraph)

I appear to have more than a few compilations of Elvis Costello and I thought today's choice I'd go for the 1989 offering Girls Girls Girls. I actually still have this on vinyl despite not having a record player these days and managed to keep in pretty good condition as well.

One of the things I really love about this particular album is that Elvis Costello chose all the songs for it, he laid out the order he wanted them in (not chronological by any means) and he also wrote extensive liner notes for the album. It's absolutely nothing like a conventional "Best Of" and I think that's why I find it a charming album because you get such a wide range of styles and you come to grasp just how good he was/is as a songwriter. Like he says below, a lot of credit goes to The Attractions "without whom this would be a blank record".

The thing I was not particularly keen on with regard to it was the fact that the three different formats it was released in had very different tracklistings. So if you wanted all the songs you would have had to have purchased it three times!

Now, if I was one of those crazy dudes who feels they must own every release (including those from other countries), in every format, every coloured vinyl, or different coloured sleeve etc I probably would have indulged myself and splashed out on all three but as I am not like that at all (with any artist that I enjoy!) I stuck with the Vinyl Edition and although unable to play it to my heart's content these days I am happy to know that I have pretty much all the tracks scattered throughout the extensive discography that I own of Declan P. MacManus, his Attractions and pretty much most of the other guises that he has released under.

Let The Day Begin...Let The Day Start!