#166: Everyday I Write The Book by Elvis Costello

City: Ottawa, ON
Radio Station: CFRA
Peak Month: November 1983
Peak Position in Ottawa ~ #6
Peak position in Vancouver ~ did not chart
Peak Position on Billboard Hot 100 ~ #36
YouTube: “Everyday I Write The Book”
Lyrics: “Everyday I Write The Book”

Declan Patrick MacManus was born in London, England, in 1954. He learned to play guitar at age 14. In 1972, he got a job as a computer operator at the Midland Bank data centre in Merseyside. That year he also joined the folk group Rusty. He began to go by the name Declan Costello as his musician father had once gone by Ross Costello on a record he made. In 1973, Declan Costello contributed vocals for the R. White “Secret Lemonade Drinker” commercial. That year Costello formed a pub band called Flip City. In 1975, he began to go by the name D.P. Costello, and in 1976 began performing solo.
In February 1977 Costello’s managers persuaded the singer-songwriter to go by the name Elvis Costello. At the time, Elvis Presley was still alive and the ‘Elvis’ name was designed to get Costello more attention from the media. (Elvis Presley died in August 1977 at the age of 42). Costello neither particularly liked nor disliked Presley. Because Costello had seen his father, Ross, work under a variety of stage names, he gave little thought to the name change.

In March 1977, Costello released his first single, “Less Than Zero”. It sold poorly. The followup, “Alison”, also did not chart. However, over the decades it has been regarded as one of Elvis Costello’s best songs. Rolling Stone ranked it at #318 in its 2004 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. After three single releases, and the release of his debut album My Aim Is True, Costello finally got a modest hit single. It was titled “Watching The Detectives” which peaked at #15 in the UK. The single included a reggae beat and cynical lyrics with a sinister secret agent guitar riff. My Aim Is True eventually earned platinum sales certification in the USA.

After the release of This Year’s Model in early 1978, Costello’s next single was “(I Don’t Want to go to) Chelsea”. He told a reporter, lyrically, the song was influenced partially by “a late run of ’60s films set in London on the BBC” that Costello had been watching at the time. Costello was also inspired by trips he had taken with his father to Chelsea in his youth. Costello explained, “I’d gone with my Dad to a few of the more enduring clothing haunts of Chelsea on a rare outing together. … Now Chelsea seemed even more of an unattainable neighborhood. It stood for both the groovy past and was reported in the papers as the hot-bed of the new punk ferment.” The single reached #12 in Ireland and #16 in the UK.

Elvis Costello was backed on the recording by his new band The Attractions. Another track from the album, “Pump It Up”, contained surface-level references to pumped-up music masking the song’s description of “a risqué encounter with a girl so enticing, [Costello] likens her to a narcotic.” The single climbed to #24 in the UK.

In 1979, Costello released his third studio album Armed Forces. The single “Oliver’s Army” concerned ‘The Troubles’ in Ireland. Costello told a reporter, “I made my first trip to Belfast in 1978 and saw mere boys walking around in battle dress with automatic weapons. They were no longer just on the evening news. These snapshot experiences exploded into visions of mercenaries and imperial armies around the world. The song was based on the premise ‘they always get a working class boy to do the killing.'” The single climbed to #2 in the UK, #4 in Ireland, and the Top 40 in Australia, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

Another single from Armed Forces, the single “Accidents Will Happen” was accompanied by a music video. It features cartoon footage of Elvis Costello and The Attractions interspersed with accidents that include toast being burnt, a bathtub overflowing, and a nuclear missile being launched. It stalled at #28 on the UK pop chart in 1979. Armed Forces reached the Top Ten on pop album charts in a half dozen countries, just missing the Top Ten in three others. It earned platinum sales certification in the UK.

In 1980, Costello released Get Happy! The album contained a cover of the 1967 song “I Can’t Stand Up For Falling” by Sam & Dave. It shot to #4 in the UK and reached #14 in Ireland. In the winter of 1981-82, Elvis Costello’s cover of the 1970 country singer George Jones “A Good Year for the Roses” climbed to #6 in the UK and #11 on the Netherlands pop chart.

In 1983, Elvis Costello and The Attractions released Punch the Clock. It was Costello’s eighth studio album. “Pills and Soap” was the debut single, a protest against Margaret Thatcher and fascism. It peaked at #16 in the UK in 1983. The followup single was titled “Everyday I Write The Book”.

The lyrics draw various parallels between romance and the process of writing a book. The narrator identifies himself as “a man with a mission in two or three editions” and tells his lover “your compliments and your cutting remarks are captured here in my quotation marks.” He also compares the stages of their relationship with chapters in a book, saying:

Chapter One: we didn’t really get along.
Chapter Two: I think I fell in love with you.
You said you’d stand by me in the middle of Chapter Three.
But you were up to your old tricks in Chapters Four, Five and Six.

“Everyday I Write The Book” peaked at #2 in Bangor (ME), #5 in Seattle and Augusta (GA), #6 in Ottawa, Roanoke (VA), and San Francisco, #9 in Denver, #11 in Los Angeles, and #14 in Montreal. The song reached #28 in the UK, and #36 on the Billboard Hot 100.

In 1984, a non-album single “I Wanna Be Loved”/”Turning the Town Red” reached #11 in Ireland. In 1986, his cover of The Animals “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” made the Top 30 in Ireland and the Top 40 in the UK.

In 1989, Elvis Costello released Spike, his 12th studio album. It was the biggest seller since Punch the Clock. A single from the album, “Veronica” focused on an older woman who has experienced severe memory loss. Costello’s inspiration for this song was his grandmother, who suffered from Alzheimer’s. When talking about the song on a VH1 interview, Costello reminisced about his grandmother having “terrifying moments of lucidity” and how this was the inspiration for “Veronica”. “Veronica” topped the Alternative Airplay Billboard chart in the USA and #19 on the Hot 100. In Europe it reached #22 in Ireland, #27 in Australia, #31 in the UK, and charted in the Netherlands and Canada. Also from Spike, 

Later in 1989, “This Town” peaked at #4 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart.

In 1991, “The Other Side of Summer” topped the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was from the album Mighty Like a Rose. In 1994, “13 Steps Lead Down” reached #6 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. While in 1996, “You Bowed Down” climbed to #8 on the Billboard Alternative Airplay chart, In the past two decades Elvis Costello has charted more singles into the Alternative Airplay chart. These include “Monkey To Man”, “Unwanted Number” and “Magnificent Hurt”.

Elvis Costello has released 33 studio albums. Over the years, the singer has received sixteen Grammy Award nominations. In 1979, Elvis Costello was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best New Artist. But he lost out to A Taste Of Honey. In 1992, he received a Grammy nomination for Mighty Like A Rose in the Best Alternative Music Album category.

In 1997, he was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category for “God Give Me Strength” (with Burt Bacharach). In 1998, Costello won a Grammy Award for I Still Have That Other Girl” in the Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals category. In 2003, Costello received another Grammy Award nomination for Cruel Smile in the Best Alternative Music Album category. That year he also received a Grammy nomination for Best Rock Album for When I Was Cruel. A track from the album, “45”, earned Costello a Grammy nomination in the Best Male Rock Vocal Performance.

In 2005, Costello received another Best Rock Album Grammy nomination for The Delivery Man. “Let’s Misbehave” received a Grammy nomination in 2005 for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. As well, he received a third Grammy nomination that year for “Monkey To Man” in the Best Rock Performance By A Duo or Group With Vocal. A fourth nomination at the 47th Grammy Awards was for “The Scarlett Tide” in the Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television, Or Other Visual Media. In 2007, My Aim Is True was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. That year, Costello received a Grammy nomination in the Best Pop Vocal Album category for The River In Reverse.

In 2010, Elvis Costello received a Grammy Award nomination in the Best Contemporary Folk Album category for Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. In 2017, the singer received another Grammy nomination for Best Spoken Word Album for his audiobook version of his memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. In 2019, he received a Grammy Award for Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album for Look Now. In 2022 The Boy Named If was nominated at the Grammy Awards for Best Rock Album. In his personal life, Elvis Costello married Canadian musician Diana Krall at Elton John’s estate in 2003. Their twin sons were born in December 2006.

August 20, 2025
Ray McGinnis

References:
Mary Campbell, “Fewer ‘Mean Songs’ for Elvis Costello,” Spartanburg Herald, Spartanburg, SC, November 9, 1986.
Declan Costello, “Secret Lemonade Drinker,” R. White, 1973.
Elvis Costello, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (Blue Rider Press, 2016).
Kory Grow, “The Last Word: Elvis Costello on Reassessing his Back Catalog and Why he’s a ‘Freak of Nature’,” Rolling Stone, January 14, 2022.
Steven Loftin, “Elvis Costello’s Personal Best,” Thelineofbestfit.com, November 29, 2024.
“Singers Costello and Krall Wed,” BBC, December 11, 2003.

CFRA 580-AM Ottawa Top Ten | November 18, 1983