158 Facts About Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello's biggest hit single, "Oliver's Army", sold more than 500,000 copies in Britain.

Elvis Costello has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise.

Elvis Costello has written more than a dozen songs with Paul McCartney and had a long-running songwriting partnership with Burt Bacharach.

One of the songs he is best known for, " Peace, Love, and Understanding", was written by Nick Lowe and recorded by Lowe's group Brinsley Schwarz in 1974, but remained obscure until Elvis Costello released his version in 1979.

Elvis Costello has won two Grammy awards, two Ivor Novello awards, four Edison awards, an MTV Video Music Award, a BAFTA award, an ASCAP Founders award and a Gemini award.

Elvis Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus, on 25 August 1954, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London, the only child of a record shop worker and a jazz musician.

Elvis Costello's father was of Irish descent and a Catholic, while his mother is English and was raised a Congregationalist.

Elvis Costello's mother, Lillian MacManus, was born and raised in Toxteth, Liverpool, the daughter of a gas-main layer and a mother who became increasingly disabled by rheumatoid arthritis as Lillian grew up.

Elvis Costello's father, Ross MacManus, was a professional trumpet player and singer, born and raised in Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool.

Elvis Costello began his career in music in the late 1940s, playing trumpet in bebop bands in Birkenhead and Liverpool.

Elvis Costello segued to playing trumpet and singing in modern jazz bands after moving to London in 1951.

In 1973, he sang the "Secret Lemonade Drinker" jingle featured in a series of advertisements for R Whites, with Costello on backing vocals.

Elvis Costello later played trumpet as an army bandsman, a ship's musician for the White Star Line, and an orchestra musician in music halls and in theatres showing silent films.

Elvis Costello has said that Pat, being the first in the family to make a career in music, is the reason he himself is a musician.

Elvis Costello spent most of his childhood in Twickenham, in west London, before moving to Liverpool with his mother in 1970.

Elvis Costello was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy until he was 14.

Elvis Costello's parents had separated by the time Elvis Costello was ten years old, after which he was raised by his mother.

Elvis Costello has said that a childhood spent watching his father work gave him an innate sense of how to be a musician but an understanding that a career in music was a job like any other, requiring discipline and hard work.

When Elvis Costello grew old enough to have an interest in the current pop hits, Ross began giving him five or six of these demonstration records per week.

Elvis Costello has said, "That's why I know so many songs".

Elvis Costello has said that, having turned nine years old in 1963, he was exactly the right age to experience the full force of Beatles fandom as he grew up.

Elvis Costello has described the Beatles as his biggest musical influence.

Elvis Costello was deeply impressed by the songs of his future collaborator Burt Bacharach, which he knew through the hits British artists Cilla Black and Dusty Springfield had with them.

When Elvis Costello moved to Liverpool, he found he did not enjoy much of the progressive rock that was popular with his peers, so, casting around for music he might like, he developed an interest in the Grateful Dead and other folk rock groups like the Byrds and the Band, and through them, country music.

Elvis Costello was a well-behaved if sometimes argumentative student, but not generally an academically outstanding one.

Elvis Costello's mother told a journalist that, when Costello was 11 years old, his school entered him into a writing contest held by The Times intended for people aged 16 to 25, for which he won a prize.

Elvis Costello completed his formal education in 1972 and, still living at home with his mother, set out to find a job that would earn him a steady wage while he pursued a career in music.

Elvis Costello began writing songs and teaching himself to play guitar by age 14.

Elvis Costello played these clubs regularly in London and continued in similar clubs when he moved to Liverpool at age 16, although folk music venues that welcomed original songs were scarcer in Liverpool than in London.

At the beginning of 1972, Elvis Costello was invited to join a folk-rock band called Rusty by the band's founder, an 18-year-old veteran of the Liverpool music scene named Allan Mayes.

In 2022, Elvis Costello reunited with Mayes to record and release an EP called The Resurrection of Rust.

When booking himself into London clubs, he began using the name Declan Elvis Costello, adopting a family name that Ross had once made a record under, because it was easier to spell and understand than MacManus when he spoke on the phone.

Around this time, Costello accompanied Ross to Costello's first professional recording session, for the R White's "Secret Lemonade Drinker" commercial jingle.

Ross sang the lead vocal while Elvis Costello played guitar and sang backing vocals.

For most of 1974, Elvis Costello shared a rented house in southwest London with some of his bandmates.

Elvis Costello wrote all but one of Flip City's original songs, did most of the singing, and chose the cover songs they played.

Elvis Costello became engaged to marry a former schoolmate in late 1973.

Elvis Costello recorded demos with Flip City at several sessions from mid-1974 until mid-1975, hoping to use them to get live bookings, secure a recording contract, or sell Elvis Costello's songs for other artists to record.

Robinson later said that he thought Flip City "could not play at all" but Elvis Costello was talented and ought to "find a real band".

Elvis Costello recorded some of these as solo demos for Dave Robinson in mid-1975.

Elvis Costello sent out as many as 20 songs on a single tape to publishers, not yet realising that no publisher would have the patience to listen to so many songs.

Elvis Costello, he learned to sing and play guitar very loudly and developed a forceful stage presence, although he was still playing to small audiences for very little money.

Elvis Costello included both songs on a six-track demo tape he sent to London radio presenter Charlie Gillett, who thought "Wave a White Flag" was the best of the six.

Gillett played several songs from the tape on his radio show later that year, the first time any Elvis Costello song received airplay.

In mid-August 1976, Elvis Costello included "Mystery Dance" and "Radio Sweetheart" on a demo tape he gave to Stiff Records, a new independent label that had just released its first single.

Partly due to the airplay received from Gillett around the same time, Elvis Costello was evaluating offers from several record companies, including Gillett's own Oval Records.

Elvis Costello chose to work with Stiff Records because they seemed prepared to move the fastest.

Stiff had been founded by Jake Riviera, who managed several acts Elvis Costello admired, and Dave Robinson.

Nick Lowe, whom Elvis Costello was on friendly terms with because he had attended so many performances by Lowe's band Brinsley Schwarz, was the label's first artist and soon became its in-house producer.

Elvis Costello still held a full-time office job, so the sessions were spaced over several weeks to accommodate his work schedule and Stiff's tight finances.

Riviera and Robinson helped give Elvis Costello a distinctive appearance that contrasted with the contemporaneous ideas how pop stars looked; they swapped the unobtrusive rimless glasses Elvis Costello had worn to correct astigmatism since he was a teenager for a pair with large black frames.

However, Elvis Costello was receiving increasingly prominent, positive coverage in the British music press.

Two weeks earlier, Elvis Costello had left his job as a computer operator at Elizabeth Arden on the condition that Stiff pay him, as an advance on future royalties, a regular stipend equal to the wages he had been earning at his job.

In mid-June 1977, Elvis Costello held auditions for a bassist and keyboardist for a backing band for a tour to promote My Aim Is True, wanting a sparser sound than on the album.

The band, soon named the Attractions, would be Elvis Costello's touring and recording band for the next seven years.

Elvis Costello used the time with Goulding and Bodnar to arrange and rehearse "Watching the Detectives".

Elvis Costello recorded the song with them at Pathway a few days later.

Elvis Costello had written the song a few weeks earlier, partly inspired by the Clash's newly released debut album.

Elvis Costello later called the recording of "Watching the Detectives" his first experience of "making records as opposed to recording some songs in a room".

My Aim Is True received extensive, favourable coverage in the UK music press through a combination of effective publicity stunts, such as Elvis Costello busking in front of the London hotel hosting the CBS Records business convention, and genuine enthusiasm for his music among music journalists.

Elvis Costello recorded his second album and his first with the Attractions, This Year's Model, during short breaks from touring, from November 1977 through January 1978.

The second single, "Pump It Up", which reached number 24, was written later, while Elvis Costello was on tour with other Stiff acts, in reaction to what he later called his "first exposure to idiotic rock and roll decadence".

In July 1978, Elvis Costello performed at the Danish Roskilde Festival, topping the bill with three other artists, premiering the song "Oliver's Army" that would become his biggest hit in the UK.

Elvis Costello later said that Armed Forces was his first album of songs he wrote with an awareness of having an audience.

The US release replaced "Sunday's Best" with Elvis Costello's cover of Lowe's " Peace, Love, and Understanding".

Elvis Costello has said he wrote the song after his first visit to Northern Ireland and was inspired by seeing young British soldiers on the streets of Belfast as a part of the Troubles.

The argument culminated in Elvis Costello disparaging James Brown and Ray Charles with racially charged insults, in comments he would later call "the exact opposite of my true feelings".

When Elvis Costello's comments were reported in the press a few weeks later, the bad publicity was sufficiently severe and widespread to be regarded, including by Elvis Costello himself, as the reason he never achieved the top-level commercial success in the US that had been predicted for him.

In January 1981, Elvis Costello released Trust amidst growing tensions within the Attractions.

Elvis Costello co-produced Squeeze's 1981 album East Side Story and performed backing vocals on the group's hit "Tempted".

Elvis Costello had long been an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer.

Elvis Costello had appeared on Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests, contributing "Stranger in the House", which they later performed together on a 1981 HBO special dedicated to Jones.

Elvis Costello collaborated with Chris Difford, of Squeeze, to write the song "Boy With a Problem".

Elvis Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album.

Under the pseudonym The Imposter, Elvis Costello released "Pills and Soap", an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election.

Also in the same year, Elvis Costello provided vocals on a version of the Madness song "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" released as a B-side.

Elvis Costello later expressed disappointment with the final album's production, describing it as "probably the worst record that I could have made of a decent bunch of songs".

Elvis Costello introduced the song as an "old northern English folk song", and the audience was invited to sing the chorus.

Elvis Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city, playing one night with the Confederates, one night with the Attractions, and one night solo acoustic.

Elvis Costello continued to work with another Attraction, Pete Thomas, as a session musician for future releases.

In 1987, Elvis Costello appeared on the HBO special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, a tribute to his long-time idol Roy Orbison.

Elvis Costello co-wrote "The Other End " with the American singer-songwriter Aimee Mann.

In 1991, Elvis Costello released Mighty Like a Rose, which featured the single "The Other Side of Summer".

In 1993, Elvis Costello experimented with classical music with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet on The Juliet Letters.

Elvis Costello returned to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with the Attractions, Brutal Youth.

Elvis Costello continued to work frequently with Attractions Steve Nieve and Pete Thomas; eventually, both became members of Elvis Costello's new back-up band, The Imposters.

In 1998, Elvis Costello signed a multi-label contract with Polygram Records, sold by its parent company the same year to become part of the Universal Music Group.

Elvis Costello released his new work on what he deemed the suitable imprimatur within the family of labels.

Elvis Costello wrote "I Throw My Toys Around" for The Rugrats Movie and performed it with No Doubt.

In 1999, Elvis Costello contributed a version of "She", released in 1974 by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer, for the soundtrack of the film Notting Hill, with Trevor Jones producing.

Elvis Costello co-wrote another song with Aimee Mann, "The Fall of the World's Own Optimist", for her 2000 album Bachelor No 2.

From 2001 to 2005, Elvis Costello re-issued his back catalogue in the US, from My Aim Is True to All This Useless Beauty, on double-disc collections on the Rhino Records label.

In 2000, Elvis Costello wrote lyrics to "Green Song", a solo cello piece by Svante Henryson; this song appears on the Anne Sofie von Otter album For the Stars.

In 2001, Elvis Costello was artist-in-residence at UCLA and wrote the music for a new ballet.

Elvis Costello produced and appeared on an album of pop songs for the classical singer Anne Sofie von Otter.

Elvis Costello released the album When I Was Cruel in 2002 on Island Records, and toured with a new band, the Imposters.

Elvis Costello co-wrote many songs on Krall's 2004 CD, The Girl in the Other Room, the first of hers to feature several original compositions.

In September 2004, Elvis Costello released the album The Delivery Man, recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, on Lost Highway Records, and it was hailed as one of his best.

In 2005, Elvis Costello performed with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong.

Elvis Costello had a collaborative history with Toussaint, beginning with a couple of scattered album tracks in the 1980s.

Elvis Costello turned to older songs to reflect the national malaise at the time.

Elvis Costello later reprised the piece on the stage of the Theatre du Chatelet in Paris in 2008, with Sting, Joe Sumner and Sylvia Schwartz.

Elvis Costello was commissioned to write a chamber opera by the Danish Royal Opera, Copenhagen, on the subject of Hans Christian Andersen's infatuation with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind.

Elvis Costello played a homecoming gig at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 25 June 2006.

In 2006, Elvis Costello performed with Fiona Apple in the Decades Rock TV special.

In 2008, Elvis Costello collaborated with Fall Out Boy on the track "What a Catch, Donnie" from their album Folie a Deux.

In Jenny Lewis' 2008 release, Acid Tongue, Elvis Costello provided vocals for the song "Carpetbaggers".

In November 2009, Elvis Costello appeared live with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Madison Square Garden and performed the Jackie Wilson song " Higher and Higher".

In July 2008, Elvis Costello appeared in his home city Liverpool where he was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Liverpool.

Elvis Costello was featured on Fall Out Boy's 2008 album Folie a Deux, providing vocals on the track "What a Catch, Donnie", along with other artists who are friends with the band.

Elvis Costello appeared in Stephen Colbert's television special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All.

In May 2009, Elvis Costello made a surprise cameo appearance on-stage at the Beacon Theatre in New York as part of Spinal Tap's Unwigged and Unplugged show, singing their fictional 1965 hit "Gimme Some Money" with the band backing him up.

In December 2009, Elvis Costello portrayed The Shape on the album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer John Mellencamp and novelist Stephen King.

In February 2010, Elvis Costello appeared in the live cinecast of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, singing some of his own songs, and participating in many of the show's other musical and acting performances.

Elvis Costello released the album National Ransom in autumn of 2010.

On 26 February 2012, Elvis Costello paid tribute to music legends Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen, who were the recipients of the first annual PEN Awards for songwriting excellence, at the JFK Presidential Library, in Boston, Massachusetts.

In September 2013 Elvis Costello released Wise Up Ghost, a collaboration with the Roots.

On 25 October 2013, Elvis Costello was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Music from the New England Conservatory.

In March 2014, Elvis Costello recorded Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes with Rhiannon Giddens, Taylor Goldsmith, Jim James and Marcus Mumford.

On 12 October 2018, Elvis Costello released his first studio album in five years, Look Now, recorded with The Imposters.

Elvis Costello wrote and produced a large majority of the album himself, with help from producer Sebastian Krys.

Elvis Costello was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2019 Birthday Honours for services to music.

In 2021, Elvis Costello released Spanish Model, a remix of 1978's This Year's Model with Spanish lyrics.

In 2021, Elvis Costello appeared at the Royal Variety Performance playing two songs with the Imposters.

Elvis Costello was introduced by the MC Alan Carr as a man who has achieved everything except appearing at the Royal Variety Performance.

Between songs Elvis Costello informed the audience that he was the second McManus to appear.

Since the early 1980s, Elvis Costello has written about music for publications including Hot Press, Details, Mojo, Musician, NME, Rolling Stone, and Vanity Fair.

Elvis Costello has written several articles about football, as an avid and knowledgeable fan, for the Times of London.

Elvis Costello has written forewords to books by Geoff Emerick, Loretta Lynn, and Wanda Jackson.

In 1993, Elvis Costello began reissuing his catalogue of albums from 1977 through 1986, on Rykodisc, and wrote detailed liner notes for each reissued album.

The audiobook, narrated by Elvis Costello, was nominated for a Grammy Award.

Elvis Costello has played himself or fictional characters very similar to himself in movies and television shows including Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, The Simpsons, Frasier, Two and a Half Men, 30 Rock, Treme, and Sesame Street.

Elvis Costello revealed little about his background and gave few interviews in the first five years of his career, so the few widely published interviews he gave played a large role in forming his early public image.

Elvis Costello did not want to play the song because he thought the subject was too obscure for American audiences and the song was too low-key to make a strong impression.

Elvis Costello appeared as musical guest on Saturday Night Live again in 1989 and 1991.

In March 1979, during a drunken argument with Bonnie Bramlett and other members of the Stephen Stills band, at a Holiday Inn bar in Columbus, Ohio, Elvis Costello referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass nigger", then pronounced Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger".

At a New York City press conference a few days later, Elvis Costello said he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press.

Elvis Costello worked extensively in Britain's Rock Against Racism campaign both before and after the incident.

In early 2010, Elvis Costello was invited to play his first concert in Israel, on 30 June of that year, at the Caesarea Amphitheater north of Tel Aviv.

At first, Elvis Costello seemed resolved to resist political pressure on artists to refrain from performing in Israel due to the country's controversial treatment of Palestinians.

Elvis Costello told the newspaper he did not agree with organisations that "think that they need to boycott Israel to pressure it", saying he thought "culture is the only way in which humanity shares experiences, and that is why I need to come and perform here".

Elvis Costello told The Jerusalem Post his decision was part of a "30-year conundrum" that he had been dealing with regarding playing in Israel.

Elvis Costello told the Post that he had not been threatened or coerced, but that he "woke up one day and realised [he] couldn't go on with the shows".

Elvis Costello has four half-brothers from his father's second marriage, all of whom are musicians.

Elvis Costello has said he had hoped to marry Burgoyne since he was 14 years old and they were at school together in London, although they did not begin dating until four years later, when Elvis Costello moved back to London after living with his mother in Liverpool for two and a half years.

Elvis Costello's rapid rise to fame put a strain on their marriage almost immediately.

Elvis Costello has said that his inability to remain faithful in his first marriage, and the emotional turmoil it caused him, has been a major inspiration for his songs.

In early 1985, Elvis Costello began a romantic relationship with Cait O'Riordan, then bass player for the Pogues, whom he met in October 1984 while their respective bands were on tour together.

In early 2003, Elvis Costello became engaged to and went on to marry singer and pianist Diana Krall, whom he met at the Grammy Awards ceremony the year before.

In July 2018, Elvis Costello announced that he had been successfully treated for a cancerous growth six weeks earlier, but needed to cancel the remaining six dates of his European tour to continue recovering from the surgery.

Elvis Costello said he had underestimated how much time he would need to recover.

In 2017, Elvis Costello helped establish the Musician Treatment Foundation as a member of its board of directors.

Elvis Costello performed concerts for the foundation's benefit in October 2017 and December 2022.

Elvis Costello sits on the advisory board of the board of directors of the Jazz Foundation of America, which provides emergency financial support and other services to working and retired musicians.

In January 2013, Elvis Costello teamed up with Paul McCartney to create an advertisement campaign backing vegetarian foods produced by the Linda McCartney Foods brand.

Elvis Costello is considered by experts in pop and rock music to be one of the best songwriters of his generation.

Bruce Springsteen has said that comments Elvis Costello made in the press criticising Springsteen's early songs as overly romantic led Springsteen to write darker songs for his 1978 album Darkness on the Edge of Town.

Liz Phair, in her appreciation of Elvis Costello for Rolling Stone 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, wrote: "I'd pay a great amount of money to audit a course taught by him".