Songoftheday 1/29/20 - I step off the train I'm walkin' down your street again, and past your door but you don't live there anymore...
from the album Amplified Heart (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #2 (one week)
Weeks in the Top-40: 37
Today's song of the day comes from the British indie-pop duo Everything But The Girl, who were named for a sign at a furniture store where they went to college in the city of Hull. Tracey Thorn, who had been half of the Marine Girls, whose "Don't Come Back" went to #21 on the UK Indie chart, and Ben Watt released their first single, a remake of Cole Porter's vocal classic "Night and Day", which scored their first minor hit at #92. Signed to the Blanco Y Negro label, the pair released their debut album Eden in 1984. The lead single, "Each and Every One", landed them their first British top-40 hit at #28, while also going to #19 in both Ireland and the Netherlands. Six songs from the record were combined with extra songs to make their American debut set, Everything But The Girl, which was put out here later that year. They continued to release albums and have minor hits through the 1980s, with their third album Love Not Money their first full-length to reach the top ten at #10. In 1989, the third single from their album Idlewild, a cover of "I Don't Want To Talk About It", made famous by Rod Stewart, landed Tracey and Ben their first British top ten hit, cresting at #3, while also going to #3 in Ireland, and #19 in New Zealand (their first hit Down Under). Buzz from that single set the pair up for their first album of the 1990s, The Language of Life. While the first single from the set, "Driving", only managed to get to #54 in Britain, it became EBTG's American breakthrough, first rising to #26 on Billboard magazine's Alternative Rock radio chart in March of 1990, then crossing over to both the Adult Contemporary (#23) and even the R&B chart (#73) list in May. A second song from the record, "Take Me" went to #30 on the Adult Contemporary (or "easy listening") list. They continued on, with a Covers EP featuring a beautiful cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time", returned the duo to the British top 40 at #13 in 1992 (in America, the EP was titled Acoustic). However, during that time Watt ended up with an autoimmune disease (Churg–Strauss syndrome) that required many surgeries and almost killed him.
After easing back into music with two more EP's released, as well as a very successful "hits" collection with Home Movies (UK #5), a recovered Watt and Thorn released their eighth studio record Amplified Heart. The soft, muted affair first was promoted with the single "Rollercoaster", which was a minor hit at #65. Then came the ballad "Missing", which originally did the same, peaking at #69 in August of 1994. Written by Thorn and Watt, Tracey's pristine vocals carry a heft of hurt for someone gone away. The original version, containing strums of guitar, still had a prominent bassline that would pave the way for the song's path to resurrection...
Almost a year later, dance music remixer Todd Terry took "Missing" and transformed it into a haunting house music anthem. That transformation collected fans like crazy, starting in Miami and traveling around like a virus until it became their biggest and most widespread hit...
The new single featuring the remixes of "Missing" got Everything But The Girl their first and only top-40 pop hit, stopping at the runner-up spot behind Mariah Carey's "One Sweet Day" in February of 1996. The song went to #5 on Billboard's Adult Contempoary chart, while spending a week at #2 on their newly-minted Adult Top-40 format tally. It even crossed over to the R&B chart at #70. (Shockingly, the song never appeared on Billboard's Dance Club Play list, possibly because by then it was an "oldie"?) Internationally, the single topped the charts in Canada (three weeks), Germany (two weeks), Denmark (one week), Iceland (one week), Italy (one week), and Hungary (one week). The song also reached the top ten in France (#2), Australia (#2), Ireland (#3), Belgium (#2W/#10F), Switzerland (#2), the UK (#3), Sweden (#3), the Netherlands (#5), Norway (#5), Austria (#6), Poland (#6), and the Czech Republic (#7).
Cresting on the success of the single, Watt and Thorn signed with Atlantic Records in the States (and Virgin abroad) for their next album in 1996, Walking Wounded. Lead single "Wrong", with the same vibe as the remix of "Missing", ended up putting the pair on the Billboard Hot 100 pop chart for their second time at #60, and their first bonafide dance hit spending a week at #1 on the Dance Club Play chart. Meanwhile, that song went to #8 in the UK, following the title track "Walking Wounded", which peaked at #6. Eventually the record spawned four top-40 UK hits, and was their highest-charting album at #4 in the UK.
They came back in 1999 with their so far latest album, Temperamental. The first single, a collaboration with remixers Deep Dish titled "The Future of the Future (Stay Gold)", topped the dance chart, as did second release "Five Fathoms" and third single "Temperamental". The fourth release, "Lullaby Of Clubland", went to #3, their last to date charting dance hit. Since then, the couple (who have been a couple that hadn't advertised the fact) have been on hiatus from recording together, with Tracey releasing her first post-EBTG album Out of the Woods in 2007, which reached #38 and single "It's All True" spending a solo week at #75. She's put out three more record since, with Record going to #15 in Britain in 2018. Although they haven't played together much since 2000, they both remain very active on the music scene, and still together as a couple, with three kids born around the 2000 mark (which could explain the change in focus). In 2001, a "mashup" with Soul Vision titled "Tracey In My Room", which interpolates their single "Wrong", put them back in the top-40 at #34.
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Here's EBTG appearing on Jools Holland to promote the single...
And on the British show The White Room in 1996 ...
That same year, Eurodance act No Mercy covered the song for their debut single in Europe, which went to #9 in Switzerland and #19 in Germany...
and lastly, live at the Montreux Jazz Festival in 2000 that is just stunning...
Up tomorrow: R&B giant has a memory jolt.
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