Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello (born August 25, 1954, London, England) is a British singer-songwriter who extended the musical and lyrical range of the punk and new wave movements beginning in the 1970s. Originally branded as an “angry young man” for his snarky, often political, whip-smart lyrics, he branched into other genres, including country and jazz, as his career progressed.

Background and early career

The son of musicians, Costello (born Declan Patrick McManus) was exposed to a mix of British and American styles—dance-hall pop to modern jazz to the Beatles—from an early age. During the early 1970s he lived in London, recording demos and performing locally under the name D.P. Costello (his great-grandmother’s maiden name) in a country rock band while working as a computer programmer. He befriended Nick Lowe, bassist for the pub rock band Brinsley Schwarz, who brought him to the attention of Jake Riviera, one of the heads of the independent label Stiff Records. About this time he adopted the performing name Elvis Costello, an homage to pioneering rocker Elvis Presley.

My Aim Is True

In 1977 Lowe produced Costello’s first album, My Aim Is True. A critical and commercial success, it aligned the cynicism and energy of punk bands like the Sex Pistols and the Clash with the structures of a more literate songwriting tradition, weaving complex wordplay through a set of clever pop tunes—among them, “Less Than Zero” and “Welcome to the Working Week”—and moving easily among varied melodic styles, from reggae (“Watching the Detectives”) to ballad (“Alison”). The album performed better on the U.K. charts than in the United States, where it peaked at 32 on the Billboard 200. In 1979 Costello was nominated for best new artist at the Grammy Awards ceremony.

Discover the fascinating events that shaped the world, straight from our editors.

SIGN UP

By clicking “Sign Up”, you consent to the Britannica Privacy Policy and Terms of Use.

Britannica Quiz

Pop Culture Quiz

Forming the Attractions

After the success of My Aim Is True, Costello formed a strong backing band, the Attractions, with Steve Nieve on keyboard, Pete Thomas on drums, and Bruce Thomas on bass. On the early albums with the Attractions—This Year’s Model (1978), Armed Forces (1979), and Get Happy!! (1980)—Costello and Lowe developed a distinctive guitar and keyboard mix that was influenced by a variety of 1960s artists, including Booker T. and the MG’s. The most notable work of this early period—rockers such as “This Year’s Girl” and “Lip Service,” deceptively upbeat pop tunes such as “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” and rapid-fire soul-inflected songs such as “Black and White World”—featured appealing melodic bass lines that complemented an energetic rhythm guitar and a stylized, almost awkward vocal style. Through densely constructed thematic puns, Costello explored the intersection of power and intimacy, often from the perspective of a rejected lover, and addressed fascism, imperialism, and the exploitation of the working class, most notoriously in “Oliver’s Army.”

Branching out to other genres

During the 1980s Costello broadened his range, working with various producers who developed more-layered arrangements. The hit “Everyday I Write the Book” (1983) was composed during this period, and albums such as Trust (1981) and Imperial Bedroom (1982) won critical acclaim. However, the early 1980s were also a time of creative inconsistency, as Costello experimented with the country genre in Almost Blue (1981) and released Goodbye Cruel World (1984); both albums had only limited critical and commercial success. Costello had also begun producing albums of other groups, including the British 2-Tone ska band the Specials and the Irish-British folk-punk band the Pogues. In 1985 Costello divorced his first wife, Mary Burgoyne, and he married Cait O’Riordan, the Pogues’ bassist, the following year.

Following his marriage, Costello recorded King of America (1986), a radical stylistic departure. Produced by T Bone Burnett, King of America features spare acoustic arrangements and a more direct lyrical style. Costello continued to explore new sounds on his next album, Spike (1989), on which O’Riordan and former Beatle Paul McCartney cowrote several songs. In both of these works, Costello wrote about the role of the artist in popular culture, blending contemporary cultural imagery with modern and classical literary allusions. He developed a fragmented, dissonant lyrical style; the influence of modern poets such as T.S. Eliot is evident on visionary songs such as “…This Town…” from Spike and “Couldn’t Call It Unexpected #4” from Mighty Like a Rose (1991). Spike produced Costello’s biggest U.S. hit, the bubbly “Veronica,” which barely cracked the top 20.

Later albums

In the 1990s Costello released a mixed set of recordings, ranging from straightforward well-crafted rockers to experimental works such as the song cycle The Juliet Letters (1993), recorded with a string quartet, and Painted from Memory (1998), written with the composer Burt Bacharach. A single from the latter, “I Still Have That Other Girl,” won a Grammy Award. Costello continued to develop musically and lyrically and remained one of rock’s most-respected songwriters well into the 21st century. He and O’Riordan divorced in 2002, and the following year he married jazz musician Diana Krall. Later entries in his oeuvre include the albums When I Was Cruel (2002); Il Sogno (2004), a ballet; Momofuku (2008); National Ransom (2010); Wise Up Ghost, and Other Songs (2013), a collaboration with the band the Roots; Look Now (2018), which won the Grammy for best traditional pop vocal album; and Hey Clockface (2020).

Explore Britannica Premium!

The trusted destination for professionals, college students, and lifelong learners.

SUBSCRIBE

In 2021 Costello released Spanish Model, a Spanish-language version of This Year’s Model; it features numerous other artists, including Juanes. Costello also cowrote (with Burnett) the Academy Award-nominated song “The Scarlet Tide” for the 2003 film Cold Mountain. Costello released the album The Boy Named If in 2022. It was followed two years later by The Coward Brothers, a 20-track collaboration with Burnett that accompanied The True Story of the Coward Brothers, a scripted musical-comedy audio series released on Audible that was directed by Christopher Guest and starred Costello, Burnett, and comedian-actor Harry Shearer.

Memoir and honors

Costello penned a memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink (2015), which was accompanied by the album Unfaithful Music & Soundtrack Album. Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, and Costello was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2016. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2019.