History Music / ElvisCostello

He hosted [[TooGoodToLast two seasons]] of a music/interview show called ''Spectacle: Elvis Costello with...'' which aired on the Sundance Channel in the US and Creator/Channel4 in the UK. UsefulNotes/{{Television}} has seen him being banned from ''Series/SaturdayNightLive'' for a dozen years for changing songs unannounced, subbing for Creator/DavidLetterman during his heart surgery, and appearing AsHimself on ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' and ''Film/TalladegaNightsTheBalladOfRickyBobby''. Charges that he is an [[Series/ThirtyRock international art thief]] are still being investigated.

->''Veronica sits in her favourite chair and she sits very quiet and still,\\
And they call her a name that they never get right and if they don't then nobody else will.\\
But she used to have a carefree mind of her own with devilish look in her eye,\\

* ''Music/ThisYearsModel'' (1978)

** The Attractions released ''Mad About the Wrong Boy'', a "solo" album without Costello, in 1980. Costello later covered one of its songs, "Sad About Girls".

* ''Hey Clockface'' (2010)

* OneMarioLimit: Defied, he adopted his stage name from [[Music/ElvisPresley the King]] himself.

-->''"I'm so affected in the face of your affection"''
-->''"You lack lust, you're so lackluster"''

** As well as the producing credits on his own albums, Costello has produced albums for Music/TheSpecials, Music/ThePogues and Music/{{Squeeze}}.
** Almost produced Music/TheyMightBeGiants' ''Apollo 18''.
** Music/NickLowe produced many of his most acclaimed releases.
** Geoff Emerick, former engineer for Music/TheBeatles, produced ''Imperial Bedroom'' and ''All This Useless Beauty''.
** T-Bone Burnett produced ''King of America'' and ''Spike''.
** Legendary country producer Billy Sherrill did the honors for ''Almost Blue''.

Costello was initially associated in the public mind with PunkRock, and in terms of attitude there was a resemblance. (He had enjoyed seeing the Music/SexPistols go head to head with morning TV host Bill Grundy.) Musically, his closest kinship was to classic [[TheSixties sixties]] pop: Music/TheKinks, Music/BobDylan, early [[Music/TheWho Who]] and especially Music/TheBeatles. While he had a [[CreativeDifferences troubled relationship]] with his backup band the Attractions, they were most suited to interpreting his diverse catalog of songs.

Although he is often associated with his use of puns and wordplay in lyrics, these are most noticeable in his early work. As he's matured, Costello's humor has become less brash and sarcastic, more jocular and [[SelfDeprecation self-mocking]]. His curiosity and desire to collaborate with others has - among other adventures - lead him to compose a score for the ballet, tour with T-Bone Burnett as a country duo, and write both an album's worth of songs with Burt Bacharach and yet another backed only by string quartet. Costello was inducted into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame in 2003.

* CheckpointCharlie: Costello uses the phrase in "Oliver's Army".

* FilmNoir: "Watching the Detectives" is a stylish run through the signifiers of the genre. "Episode of Blonde" also has elements of it.

* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: Since breaking into the American market, his work started to focus on the Stateside audience and it shows in the lyrics, more so in his later work.

* TelephoneSong: "No Action" is sung from the perspective of a man who no longer feels anything for his girlfriend--mentioning several times how, every time they talk on the phone, all he wants to do is hang up.
* TextlessAlbumCover: ''King of America''

* UsefulNotes/TheTroubles: The subject of "Oliver's Army".

* YouCanLeaveYourHatOn: Deconstructed, to incredibly dark effect, in "She's Pulling Out The Pin", which starts out describing a striptease ("She's pulling out the pin / That lets her hair fall down"), implies a dark relationship scenario in the character's background ("She's slipping off the hook / Unbuttoning her dress / There's just enough to make some man a mess"), drops a sinister hint ("Do you hear something ticking?"), and ultimately suggests that "she" has done something very terrible, and the pin isn't just in her hair and the mess isn't just emotional...

Although he is often associated with his use of puns and wordplay in lyrics, these are most noticeable in his early work. As he's matured, Costello's humor has become less brash and sarcastic, more jocular and [[SelfDeprecation self-mocking]]. His curiosity and desire to collaborate with others has - among other adventures - lead him to compose a score for the ballet, tour with T-Bone Burnett as a country duo, and write an album's worth of songs with Burt Bacharach. Costello was inducted into the UsefulNotes/RockAndRollHallOfFame in 2003.

Although he is often associated with his use of puns and wordplay in lyrics, these are most noticeable in his early work. As he's matured, Costello's humor has become less brash and sarcastic, more jocular and [[SelfDeprecation self-mocking]]. His curiosity and desire to collaborate with others has - among other adventures - lead him to compose a score for the ballet, tour with T-Bone Burnett as a country duo, and write an album's worth of songs with Burt Bacharach.

* {{Striptease}}: Deconstructed, to incredibly dark effect, in "She's Pulling Out The Pin", which starts out describing a striptease ("She's pulling out the pin / That lets her hair fall down"), implies a dark relationship scenario in the character's background ("She's slipping off the hook / Unbuttoning her dress / There's just enough to make some man a mess"), drops a sinister hint ("Do you hear something ticking?"), and ultimately suggests that "she" has done something very terrible, and the pin isn't just in her hair and the mess isn't just emotional...
-->''Full of shattered glass and mayhem''\\
''Not one softly whispered amen...''\\
''She's knocking down some doors''\\
''And the smoke begins to fill''\\
''Where the world without her ends''\\
''And the next one begins''\\
''She's pulling out the pin.''

* {{Striptease}}: Deconstructed, to incredibly dark effect, in "She's Pulling Out The Pin", which starts out describing a striptease ("She's pulling out the pin / That lets her hair fall down"), implies a dark relationship scenario in the character's background ("She's slipping off the hook / Unbuttoning her dress / There's just enough to make some man a mess"), drops a sinister hint ("Do you hear something ticking?"), and ultimately suggests that "she" has done something very terrible, and the pin isn't just in her hair and the mess isn't just emotional...
-->''Full of shattered glass and mayhem''\\
''Not one softly whispered amen...''\\
''She's knocking down some doors''\\
''And the smoke begins to fill''\\
''Where the world without her ends''\\
''And the next one begins''\\
''She's pulling out the pin.''

* SeparatedByACommonLanguage: His later work is more focused towards the American market and it shows in the lyrics.

** "Less Than Zero" is one to former British Union of Fascists leader Sir Oswald Mosley; Costello was inspired to write the song after seeing Moseley on a televised interview in which he attempted to deny his racist past.

* JackBauerInterrogationTechnique: ''Watching The Detectives''

* ObsessionSong: "I Want You".

Declan Patrick Aloysius [=MacManus=] (born August 25, 1954), better known by his {{Stage Name|s}} Elvis Costello, is a sometimes popular and always respectable musician and songwriter who's been around since the late [[TheSeventies seventies]].

Before they put you on the torture table
'Cause somewhere in the Quisling clinic
there's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
** An even more well-known example of this trope is "Oliver's Army", an upbeat Music/{{Abba}}-inspired song (no, really; compare it with "Dancing Queen") that sounds quite cheerful until you realise it's about sending young working-class men, barely out of school, off to fight and die in foreign wars.

* SesquipedalianLoquaciousness: A hallmark of much of Costello's early work, although after his collaboration with Music/BurtBacharach the tendency towards using a lot of words has eased slightly.

-->Better cut off all identifying labels
-->Before they put you on the torture table
-->'Cause somewhere in the Quisling clinic
-->there's a shorthand typist taking seconds over minutes
** An even more well-known example of this trope is "Oliver's Army", an upbeat Music/{{Abba}}-inspired song (no, really) that sounds quite cheerful until you realise it's about sending young working-class men, barely out of school, off to fight and die in foreign wars.

-->"Veronica"

* CanonDiscontinuity: Costello hates his 1982 single "Party Party" and has eradicated it from his discography, refusing to allow it to be included on any of his albums - not even expanded reissues or outtake collections. This appears to be a running gag at this point.

I wanna bite that hand so badly

!!"Everyday, everyday, everyday I write the tropes":

* AcCENTUponTheWrongSylLABle:

Radio is a sound salvation\\

-->They say you better listen to the voice of reason\\

** He duetted with Music/GwenStefani on his composition, "I Throw My Toys Around" on ''TheRugratsMovie'' soundtrack.