The son of a musician and bandleader, Elvis Costello has had a hugely varied career in popular music, characterised by a mixture of high critical praise and fluctuating commercial fortunes.
The artist, christened Declan Patrick McManus, came to prominence in 1977 when he signed to the fledgling Stiff Records label, home to Wreckless Eric, Madness and the inimitable Ian Dury. The label's UK tour of 77/78 became legendary and was instrumental in promoting not only Elvis's first album My Aim Is True but also the follow-up, 1978's This Year's Model (both albums adorned with covers showing the singer's striking physiognomy, buffered by those huge Buddy Holly glasses).
It is from these two projects and the 1979 album Armed Forces, that I will select the aforementioned highlights of an Elvis Costello discography that, up to that point, was already replete with classics.
• The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes - from My Aim Is True; a pounding slab of guttural music that was a strange mix of nasal Americana and Merseybeat. Lyrics were occasionally incomprehensible, but delivered in the trademark sneer that was to define him and sit well with the burgeoning punk movement of that period.
• Alison - also from My Aim Is True; a line in the song gave rise to the album's title and betrayed Costello's Stax and Smokey Robinson influences. A beautiful live version was given on the Granada TV music show of the time, So It Goes, hosted by the late Tony Wilson, a champion of much new music in those days.
• I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea - from This Year's Model; an angular reggae tinge to this, the spiky performance suffused with a gorgeous, double-tracked chorus and the tense interjections of a strenuously plucked Fender Musicman guitar.
• Accidents Will Happen - from Armed Forces; three minutes of pop perfection, an undulating melody in the verse, a cutting climax of a chorus and an ethereal, John Lennon-style coda as the song fades. A video for the single comprised a curious mix of live action and superimposed animation, anticipating Aha's similar, but rather more ambitious Take On Me promo by about six years. One of his very best.
• Oliver's Army - probably his best known and most loved track. Again from the Armed Forces album, it was interesting to hear Costello himself cite the Abba song Dancing Queen as an influence on the final production, in particular Benny Andersson's classical piano flourishes which Steve Nieve reworked at various junctures in the song.
The artist, christened Declan Patrick McManus, came to prominence in 1977 when he signed to the fledgling Stiff Records label, home to Wreckless Eric, Madness and the inimitable Ian Dury. The label's UK tour of 77/78 became legendary and was instrumental in promoting not only Elvis's first album My Aim Is True but also the follow-up, 1978's This Year's Model (both albums adorned with covers showing the singer's striking physiognomy, buffered by those huge Buddy Holly glasses).
It is from these two projects and the 1979 album Armed Forces, that I will select the aforementioned highlights of an Elvis Costello discography that, up to that point, was already replete with classics.
• The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes - from My Aim Is True; a pounding slab of guttural music that was a strange mix of nasal Americana and Merseybeat. Lyrics were occasionally incomprehensible, but delivered in the trademark sneer that was to define him and sit well with the burgeoning punk movement of that period.
• Alison - also from My Aim Is True; a line in the song gave rise to the album's title and betrayed Costello's Stax and Smokey Robinson influences. A beautiful live version was given on the Granada TV music show of the time, So It Goes, hosted by the late Tony Wilson, a champion of much new music in those days.
• I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea - from This Year's Model; an angular reggae tinge to this, the spiky performance suffused with a gorgeous, double-tracked chorus and the tense interjections of a strenuously plucked Fender Musicman guitar.
• Accidents Will Happen - from Armed Forces; three minutes of pop perfection, an undulating melody in the verse, a cutting climax of a chorus and an ethereal, John Lennon-style coda as the song fades. A video for the single comprised a curious mix of live action and superimposed animation, anticipating Aha's similar, but rather more ambitious Take On Me promo by about six years. One of his very best.
• Oliver's Army - probably his best known and most loved track. Again from the Armed Forces album, it was interesting to hear Costello himself cite the Abba song Dancing Queen as an influence on the final production, in particular Benny Andersson's classical piano flourishes which Steve Nieve reworked at various junctures in the song.
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