"This Year's Girl" is a song written by
new wave musician
Elvis Costello
Declan Patrick MacManus Order of the British Empire, OBE (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer-songwriter and record producer. He has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award in ...
and performed by Costello and
the Attractions
The Attractions were an English backing band for the English new wave musician Elvis Costello between 1977 and 1986, and again from 1994 to 1996. They consisted of Steve Nieve (keyboards and ukulele), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Tho ...
for his 1978 album ''
This Year's Model
''This Year's Model'' is the second studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released on 17March 1978 through Radar Records. After being backed by Clover for his debut album '' My Aim Is True'' (1977), Costello formed t ...
''. Inspired by the
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
song "
Stupid Girl", the song's lyrics criticizing fashion saw some critics allege misogyny, a theme which Costello strongly denied was present in the song in subsequent interviews.
Released on ''This Year's Model'' and on a single in the US, the song has since seen positive critical reception and has been included in compilation albums and in Costello's live setlists. The song has also been featured as the theme song to the second season of ''
The Deuce'', featuring additional vocals by
Natalie Bergman
Natalie Bergman is an American singer-songwriter. She is one half of the duo Wild Belle, along with her brother Elliot Bergman. Her debut solo album, ''Mercy'', was released on Third Man Records on May 7, 2021. She is based in Los Angeles.
Earl ...
.
Background
"This Year's Girl" was written by Costello as an "answer song" to the 1966
Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...
song, "
Stupid Girl".
He explained the relationship between the songs, "My lyrics might have been tough on the girl but it was full of regret and a little sympathy, while the
Jagger/Richards song seemed to take delight in being heartless and cruel". Costello summarized the song as being "about an idea of glamour and attraction".
The lyrics of "This Year's Girl" resulted in Costello being criticized for attacking women.
Costello rebuked these accusations, saying. "Everything in the song is about the way men see women and what they desire from them. If there is a lie being told, then it is the one that a girl might be prepared to live or tell, in order to live up to some false ideal of attraction. That may contain disappointment and be critical, but it hardly constitutes hatred". Costello also compared it positively against "Stupid Girl", saying, "The Stones wrote 'Stupid Girl' and they're heroes. I wrote 'This Year's Girl', saying that fashion is a trap, a much more compassionate song, and everyone said I was a misogynist".
During the intro of "This Year's Girl", Costello plays a
Gretsch
Gretsch is an American company that manufactures musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Friedrich Gretsc ...
Country Club guitar that he had bought in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
during the making of the album. The song features a stop-start drum beat from
Pete Thomas which has been compared by critics to the drum track on
the Beatles
The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' 1965 song "
Ticket to Ride".
Costello added maracas and "Mersey vocal harmonies" to the track to mimic the 50s rock and roll influence of the song.
Release and reception
"This Year's Girl" was released as the second track on Costello's 1978 sophomore album, ''
This Year's Model
''This Year's Model'' is the second studio album by the English singer-songwriter Elvis Costello, released on 17March 1978 through Radar Records. After being backed by Clover for his debut album '' My Aim Is True'' (1977), Costello formed t ...
''. It was not released as a single in Costello's native UK, but a single of the song with B-side "Big Tears" was issued in the US. It did not chart there. The song has since appeared on Costello compilations, such as ''
Girls Girls Girls''. An alternate version of the song has been released on later editions of ''This Year's Model''.
"This Year's Girl" has generally received positive attention from music critics. ''
Cash Box
''Cashbox'', also known as ''Cash Box'', was an American music industry trade magazine, originally published weekly from July 1942 to November 1996. Ten years after its dissolution, it was revived and continues as ''Cashbox Magazine'', an online ...
'' said that it's "a clever and meaningful statement about the double-edged adoration of idols."
''
Record World
''Record World'' magazine was one of the three main music industry trade magazines in the United States, along with '' Billboard'' and '' Cashbox''. It was founded in 1946 under the name ''Music Vendor'', but in 1964 it was changed to ''Record Wo ...
'' called it "one of the best r&r singles of the year."
Matt LeMay of ''
Pitchfork Media
''Pitchfork'' (formerly ''Pitchfork Media'') is an American online music publication (currently owned by Condé Nast) that was launched in 1995 by writer Ryan Schreiber as an independent music blog.
Schreiber started Pitchfork while working ...
'' praised
Pete Thomas' drumming on the song, explaining, "He keeps the beat deep and powerful, putting accents in all the right places without ever attempting to take the spotlight off the freak up front".
Jim Beviglia of ''American Songwriter'' ranked the song as the 14th best Elvis Costello song ever, calling the track "a song that has no expiration date on its excellence".
''
The Daily Telegraph
''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a national British daily broadsheet newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed across the United Kingdom and internationally.
It was fo ...
s Martin Chilton named the song Costello's 34th best.
In 2018 a version of "This Year's Girl" featuring supporting vocals by
Natalie Bergman
Natalie Bergman is an American singer-songwriter. She is one half of the duo Wild Belle, along with her brother Elliot Bergman. Her debut solo album, ''Mercy'', was released on Third Man Records on May 7, 2021. She is based in Los Angeles.
Earl ...
was used as the theme song for season 2 of the
HBO
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...
drama series ''
The Deuce''. The show's music supervisor, Blake Leyh, was a punk-rock fan and wanted a female-sung track that would be historically accurate to the show.
He explained the process, "Elvis and his producer
Sebastian Krys
Sebastian Krys (born November 11, 1970) is an Argentine-born American audio engineer, record producer and radio personality. A six-time Grammy and 13-time Latin Grammy winner, Krys has worked with many Spanish language pop and rock artists such as ...
got hold of the original multitrack master tapes so that we could take the song apart and reconstruct it as a male/female duet. We tried quite a few different approaches to the duet, using different singers and different edits of the song. Sebastian had worked with Natalie before and suggested her as someone who could hold her own against Elvis' original vocal, and when we combined their voices the idea worked."
Live history
Since its release in 1978, "This Year's Girl" has been a mainstay of Costello's live setlist.
A live version of the track appears on ''
Live at Hollywood High
''Live at Hollywood High'' (officially released as ''Live at Hollywood High/The Costello Show Vol. 2'') is a recording by Elvis Costello and the Attractions from a 1978 concert at Hollywood High School in Los Angeles, California. Three songs fr ...
'', where, during the intro to the song, Costello engages the crowd, asking "Are they any girls here tonight?" and, when the crowd's response was too meek, jokes, "Well I think me and the fellas better go home then, if there are no girls here..."
During his 2018 tour, Costello performed the song as the opening track at his concerts.
References
Citations
Sources
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{{Elvis Costello
1978 singles
Elvis Costello songs
1978 songs
Columbia Records singles
Songs written by Elvis Costello
Song recordings produced by Nick Lowe