Everyday I Write the Book

In an interview from November 1998, Costello said "Everyday I Write the Book" was "a song I wrote in ten minutes almost as a challenge to myself. I thought, maybe I could write just a simple, almost formula song and make it mean something. I was quite happy with it and I tried to do it in a kind of lovers-rock type arrangement and I wasn't happy with it and then ended up putting this other kind of rhythm to the song, which was written originally as a kind of Merseybeat knock off...I invested less emotionally in it than any other songs from that time yet it's the one that everyone warmed to."{{cite web|url=http://www.simongrigg.info/ecinterview.htm |title=Simongriggdotinfo | An Elvis Costello Interview |publisher=Simongrigg.info |access-date=2014-05-09}}

Costello also cited Nick Lowe and Rockpile as an influence on the song; he explained, "[Lowe] has always been a songwriter from whom I've taken cues — see his song 'When I Write the Book,' and my song 'Everyday I Write the Book'."{{cite web |last1=Binelli |first1=Mark |title=St. Nick: The Long, Strange and Wonderful Career of Nick Lowe |date=29 November 2018 |url=https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-features/long-strange-wonderful-career-nick-lowe-755373/ |publisher=Rolling Stone |access-date=21 October 2019}}

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:

{{poemquote|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{{cite web |url=http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Elvis-Costello/Everyday-I-Write-The-Book.html |title=Elvis Costello - Everyday I Write The Book Lyrics |publisher=Seeklyrics.com |access-date=2014-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140115151104/http://www.seeklyrics.com/lyrics/Elvis-Costello/Everyday-I-Write-The-Book.html |archive-date=15 January 2014 |url-status=dead }}}}

The music video for "Everyday I Write the Book" was directed by Don LettsCostello's audio commentary on the Right Spectacle dvd and has been called a "classic MTV hit" and features footage of Elvis Costello and the Attractions performing in a studio with female backup singers Claudia Fontaine and Caron Wheeler dressed in African clothing and kente cloth headwraps. Footage of Costello and his bandmates performing is mingled with footage showing celebrity lookalikes of Prince Charles and Diana, Princess of Wales, Charles incongruously doing household chores and Diana watching television in a middle class domicile. Clips of the silent films being watched by Diana are included in the montage.{{cite web|url=http://www.mtv.com/videos/elvis-costello/87958/everyday-i-write-the-book.jhtml |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090629172502/http://www.mtv.com/videos/elvis-costello/87958/everyday-i-write-the-book.jhtml |url-status=dead |archive-date=29 June 2009 |title=Everyday I Write the Book | Elvis Costello | Music Video |publisher=MTV |date=1990-01-06 |access-date=2014-05-09}}

When Prince Charles appears wielding a rapier and wearing a swashbuckler costume like that of the actors in the silent film, Princess Diana rolls her eyes and returns her attention to the television. Further attempts by Prince Charles to impress his spouse—including presenting her with a red rose and jumping through a flaming hoop—are similarly rebuffed as she is more interested in the romances depicted on her television. Costello later commented that he had "no idea" of the reason for the interspersed royalty scenes, which were, he says, the director's idea. At one point, the singer drops two stone tablets similar to those in the classic film The Ten Commandments and they are smashed.

The single was backed with the non-album B-side "Heathen Town", which Costello described as his answer song to the Flying Burrito Brothers' "Sin City".{{Cite book|last=Hinton|first=Brian|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wz4UAQAAIAAJ&q=%22Elvis+Costello%22+%22Heathen+Town%22+%22Burritos%22|title=Country Roads: How Country Came to Nashville|date=2000|publisher=Sanctuary|isbn=978-1-86074-293-4|language=en}} It later was released on the compilation Out of Our Idiot.

Cash Box said that "a typically witty lyric and song structure uses literary metaphors, female backup vocals, and multitextured keyboard-based arrangement in living up to the songwriter’s rep as a pop tunesmith nonpareil."{{cite magazine|title=Reviews|magazine=Cash Box|url=https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-All-Music/Cash-Box/80s/1983/CB-1983-08-13.pdf|date=August 13, 1983|accessdate=2022-07-20|page=10}} A reviewer for AllMusic described this song and one other as the best on Punch the Clock and said they work well as "shiny pop singles."{{cite web|author=Stephen Thomas Erlewine |url=http://www.allmusic.com/album/punch-the-clock-ryko-bonus-tracks-mw0000740816 |title=Punch the Clock - Elvis Costello,Elvis Costello & the Attractions | Songs, Reviews, Credits, Awards |publisher=AllMusic |access-date=2014-05-09}} A writer for Stylus Magazine wrote it is one of three best songs on that album and that its "fractured keyboards" feature the most successful use of the "overdub cut-and-paste style."{{cite web |url=http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=383 |title=Elvis Costello - Punch The Clock - On Second Thought |publisher=Stylus Magazine |access-date=2014-05-09 |archive-date=5 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120205181116/http://www.stylusmagazine.com/feature.php?ID=383 |url-status=dead }} Robert Christgau included this song among those Elvis Costello hits "you like so much you think you understand them."{{cite web|url=http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?id=1851&name=Elvis+Costello+and+the+Attractions |title=CG: Elvis Costello and the Attractions |publisher=Robert Christgau |access-date=2014-05-09}} According to one source, the theme of the song's "hopeless pop romantic" lyrics are about "struggling to make his marriage work."{{cite web|author=Mosi Reeves |url=http://www.browardpalmbeach.com/2005-03-03/music/this-year-s-model/ |title=This Year's Model | New Times Broward-Palm Beach |publisher=Browardpalmbeach.com |date=2005-03-03 |access-date=2014-05-09}}

{{rquote|right|I like singing it now, but I don't much care for the record.|Costello in a June 2009 interview{{cite web|url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/5540628/Elvis-Costello-interview.html |title=Elvis Costello interview |publisher=Telegraph |date=2009-06-17 |access-date=2014-05-09}}}}

Costello has referred to "Everyday I Write the Book" as "a bad Smokey Robinson song"; in a June 1994 Central Park concert, it was one of only two of his best-known songs performed without remaining faithful to the original recording, with Costello instead performing it in what he called its "original" version.{{cite web|author=Neil Strauss |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/10/arts/review-pop-down-memory-lane-the-elvis-costello-way.html |title=Review/Pop; Down Memory Lane the Elvis Costello Way - New York Times |location=Central Park (Nyc) |work=The New York Times |date=1994-06-10 |access-date=2014-05-09}} A review of an August 2009 performance at the Ravinia Festival with "the Sugarcanes" was described as having its "hooky chorus turned into a dour lament".{{cite web|url=http://timeoutchicago.com/music-nightlife/audio-file-blog/113626/live-review-elvis-costello-and-the-sugarcanes-at-ravinia |title=Chicago Music & Nightlife |publisher=Time Out Chicago |access-date=2014-05-09}} In October 2015 Costello performed an acoustic version of the song as the conclusion to on stage book tour interviews promoting his memoir Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (2015).{{Cite web|url=https://blogcritics.org/book-tour-unfaithful-music-disappearing-ink-by-elvis-costello/|title=Book Tour – 'Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink' by Elvis Costello|date=23 October 2015|website=Blogcritics.orgb|access-date=6 February 2020}}

The song was re-released on the 1985 compilation album The Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions, the 1994 compilation album The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977–86, and twice (1999 and 2001) on The Very Best of Elvis Costello, on first the PolyGram label then the Rhino label. It is also included on the 2007 compilation The Best of Elvis Costello: The First 10 Years. The song appeared in 1998 on the soundtrack album for ''The Wedding Singer'.{{cite web|url=http://www.billboard.com/artist/280012/soundtrack/chart |title=Soundtrack - Chart history |publisher=Billboard |access-date=2014-05-09}}

In 2010, in appearances premiering within a month of each other, the song was chosen by both Robert Harris{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00w6pny |title=BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Robert Harris |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |date=2010-12-03 |access-date=2014-05-09}} and Nick Park{{cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wntyl |title=BBC Radio 4 - Desert Island Discs, Nick Park |publisher=Bbc.co.uk |access-date=2014-05-09}} as one of their "Desert Island Discs."

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Category:1983 songs

Category:1983 singles

Category:Elvis Costello songs

Category:Songs written by Elvis Costello

Category:Song recordings produced by Clive Langer

Category:Song recordings produced by Alan Winstanley

Category:Columbia Records singles

Category:Music videos directed by Don Letts

Category:Cultural depictions of Charles III

CategorY:Cultural depictions of Diana, Princess of Wales