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Grace of My Heart is a 1996 film written and directed by Allison Anders, set in the pop music world, starting off in New York's Brill Building early 1960s era, weaving through the California Sound of the mid '60s and culminating with the adult-contemporary scene of the early 1970s.

The plot follows the personal life and career trajectory of its protagonist, Denise Waverly. The soundtrack features a variety of songs by such artists as Burt Bacharach, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, and Jill Sobule, which replicate the musical style that emerged from the Brill Building, New York's music factory during the heyday of girl groups and "pre-fab" acts like The Monkees.

Cast[link]

• Illeana Douglas as Edna Buxton/Denise Waverly
• Matt Dillon as Jay Phillips
• Eric Stoltz as Howard Caszatt
• John Turturro as Joel Milner
• Patsy Kensit as Cheryl Steed
• Bruce Davison as John Murray
• Jennifer Leigh Warren as Doris Shelley
• Bridget Fonda as Kelly Porter
• Chris Isaak as Matthew Lewis
• David Clennon as Dr. 'Jonesy' Jones
• Richard Schiff as Audition Record Producer
• Peter Fonda as Guru Dave (voice only)

Plot[link]

Edna Buxton (Douglas) is a steel heiress from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, who wants to be a singer and enters a local talent contest. She plans to sing "You'll Never Walk Alone," until, backstage, she meets a blues singer named Doris Shelley (Warren) who is belting out "The Blues Ain't Nothin' (But a Woman Cryin' for her Man)." Doris advises Edna to follow her heart, so Edna sings "Hey There" instead and wins the contest. She uses some of her own money to record a demo of her first original song, "In Another World". Record producer Joel Milner (Turturro) likes the demo but says he cannot market a girl singer-songwriter. He becomes her agent, renames her "Denise Waverly" and invents a blue-collar persona for her. Milner also reworks her song for a male doo-wop group, the Stylettes, and the song becomes a hit.

Denise moves to New York and becomes a professional songwriter in the Brill Building. She worries that she will not be able to pen a follow-up to "In Another World," but Milner encourages her to look at the world around her. She meets fellow songwriter Howard Caszatt (Stoltz), and after a difficult first encounter she becomes professionally and romantically involved with him. She also meets Doris, an unsuccessful young singer, and persuades Milner to let Doris and her group audition. Milner likes the group and the song Denise has written, and he renames them the Luminaries.

The group is a success, and disc jockey John Murray (Davison) credits Denise with "sparking the craze for girl groups." Denise and Howard write a song about the condition of working class black girls in New York City. Denise then suggests that she and Howard should write a wedding-themed song for the Luminaries. Howard refuses, but when Denise reveals that she is pregnant with Howard's child they get married and have a daughter. However, Howard starts flirting with Cheryl Steed (Kensit), a newly hired English songwriter.

Joel asks Cheryl and her husband Matthew (Isaak) to write a song for the Luminaries. The result becomes a hit. Howard, annoyed, concedes that Denise's instincts were right. Then Joel asks Denise and Cheryl to collaborate on writing a song for closeted lesbian ingenue singer Kelly Porter (Fonda). Denise agrees, even though she dislikes Cheryl, but when she arrives home unexpectedly and finds Howard in bed with another woman, she takes her child in a cab to the studio and tells Cheryl what has happened. Cheryl comforts Denise and the two become friends.

Denise throws herself into her work and becomes a highly successful songwriter. Having broken up with Howard, she has a brief but unhappy affair with the married John Murray, which ends when he moves with his family to Chicago. She learns that she is pregnant with Howard's second baby; Cheryl convinces her to go to an obstetrician, who safely performs an illegal abortion.

With the British Invasion, the Brill Building songwriting machine has become obsolete. Milner tells Denise she should not be so sad, because she forced him to take chances he would have never had the courage to tackle alone. He finally allows her to become a singer, and introduces her to Jay Phillips (Dillon), the singer, songwriter and producer of a popular surf-rock group. Denise initially hates Jay's music, but agrees to let him produce her. She writes and sings "God Give Me Strength," and she is delighted when he gives the song a skilful orchestral arrangement. However, the record bombs, and Denise blames herself for making the song too personal. Denise and Jay become a couple and resettle in California at the height of the hippie movement. Cheryl is songwriting in Los Angeles. She and Denise collaborate on songs for a Bubblegum pop TV show called Where the Action Is.

Jay is affectionate but also childlike, reclusive and a heavy drug user, and becomes increasingly paranoid. He disapproves of Denise writing songs for the TV show, insisting that it's beneath her. His bandmates distance themselves from him, leaving him to work alone in his studio. In a fit of paranoia, he accuses Denise of stealing tapes from him, but when it turns out that he threw the tapes over the studio balcony in a fit of irritation and then forgot that he had done so, Denise is distressed. He also takes his and her children to the museum and forgets to bring them home. While Denise is at a club with Doris, Jay, directionless and in despair at his inability to be more responsible, wanders into the ocean and drowns. Numbed by Jay's death, Denise retires with her family to a hippie commune and adopts yet another father-figure in the commune's guru.

Joel Milner visits Denise in the commune and takes her and her children out to dinner. That night, he confronts her with her constant reliance on men for guidance and her failure to take responsibility for her own talent. Denise's suppressed anger spills out, and she screams at Milner that he is a "fucking leech" who exploited her. He agrees with her, and the more he agrees with her the angrier she becomes, until he deliberately provokes her by throwing his drink into her face. She strikes him and then collapses in tears, grieving for Jay. Milner consoles her and the two are reconciled.

In the closing sequence, Denise is seen confidently recording and producing her first solo album Grace of My Heart with her extended family and friends in attendance.

Closing credits[link]

Over the credits, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello are shown singing and playing their own fully orchestrated version of their co-penned work "God Give Me Strength", which received far greater hit status in the real world than it did in the movie. As a result, over the ensuing two years, Burt Bacharach and Elvis Costello expanded their collaboration to include an entire album Painted from Memory, which was itself covered to great success by jazz guitarist Bill Frisell.

Released in 1999 on Decca Records, The Sweetest Punch consisted of jazz arrangements of the Painted From Memory songs done by Frisell and his studio group, featured vocals by Costello on two songs, and jazz singer Cassandra Wilson on two songs, one of which is a duet employing both.

Real life influence[link]

The movie, although making no claim of having been inspired by real-life personas, does have some resemblance or connections to the lives of some of the most iconic American Pop singers-songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s, although such connections are intentionally blurred and at times cross-written between two different characters, or merged into one.

Goffin-King connection[link]

In real life, Carole King and her first husband Gerry Goffin were based in the Brill Building and penned such hits as "Will You Love Me Tomorrow" (recorded by The Shirelles), "The Loco-Motion" (introduced by Little Eva, the Goffin-King's babysitter), "One Fine Day" (a hit for The Chiffons) and many others. In Grace of My Heart, "One Fine Day" is paid tribute in "Born to Love That Boy," the first song Waverly composes for The Luminaries (per the lyric, "I don't care what the other girls say/One fine day he'll marry me"). "Born to Love That Boy," written by Goffin and Larry Klein, also recalls the thematically similar "He's A Rebel," a Gene Pitney penned tune made famous by The Crystals, after being turned down by Vicki Carr. Louise Goffin, daughter of Goffin and King, shares songwriting credit with her father on "Between Two Worlds" (performed on the soundtrack by Shawn Colvin). The elder Goffin's stamp can also be found on "In Another World," the tune that establishes Waverly as a hit songwriter; the band Los Lobos also contributes to the track. Finally, the album that shares the film's name, Grace of My Heart, is analogous to King's 1971 breakthrough album Tapestry. The Grace of My Heart album is depicted as Waverly's second attempt to sing her own songs in a commercially viable way, and she succeeds on a platinum scale (sales over one million). In real life, Tapestry was King's second serious attempt to sing her own songs in a commercially viable way, and she succeeded on an even greater scale than is shown in the film, as Tapestry sat at U.S. #1 for 15 weeks and stayed on the charts for over six years, going platinum 10 times over.

Stand-ins for Phil Spector, Lesley Gore, Ellie Greenwich, etc.[link]

Elsewhere, real life permeates Grace of My Heart in several forms, such as Turturro's character who invites comparisons to both Phil Spector and Don Kirshner, while The Luminaries' Doris Shelley suggests both Shirley Owens and Doris Coley of The Shirelles. Also, former teen duo, David and Andrew Williams (nephews of crooner Andy Williams), are featured as Everly Brothers soundalikes. Similarly, Bridget Fonda has an extended cameo as Kelly Porter, a dewey faced ingenue not unlike Lesley Gore, known for bubblegum angst like "It's My Party" and "You Don't Own Me." The lush ballad "My Secret Love" hints at Porter's lesbianism in a nod to Gore's own professed sexuality. Not incidentally, Gore herself co-wrote the song, which is sung on record by Miss Lily Banquette of retro-lounge band Combustible Edison. Furthermore, the radio moniker of Davison's character, John Murray, evokes memories of Murray the K. Just as in real life Murray the K was an early, ardent supporter of The Beatles, in the film John Murray explains to Denise Waverly how The Fab Four are about to revolutionize the music industry.

Besides King, Goffin and Spector, the Brill Building was home base for songwriting duo Ellie Greenwich and Jeff Barry, as well as Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller. In Grace of My Heart, these artists, and Greenwich in particular, are referenced musically via "I Do", The Luminaries' stylistic match for "Chapel of Love," originally written by Spector, Greenwich and Barry for The Ronettes but best remembered for the version produced by Leiber and Stoller for The Dixie Cups. The "doo-whaddy-whaddy" refrain of "I Do" also invites comparisons to Greenwich's "Doo-Wah-Diddy", which was recorded by The Exciters and Manfred Mann. Like King, however, Greenwich has no actual contributions to the movie soundtrack. '"I Do" is instead credited to Carole Bayer Sager and Dave Stewart (formerly of Eurythmics).

Brian Wilson Connection[link]

Matt Dillon portrays a singer/producer later in the movie, with whom Waverly falls in love. His character, Jay, is the lead singer of a surf music band who is highly respected for his creative genius. However, he becomes obsessed with his latest musical project (replete with theremin) and becomes a self-destructive recluse. In all these aspects, his character begs comparison with real-life Beach Boys' driving-force Brian Wilson.

However, while in the movie his character becomes romantically involved with Waverly and eventually commits suicide by drowning, in real life Wilson and King were not romantically involved, and Wilson is still alive. (It is worth noting that his brother, Beach Boys drummer Dennis Wilson did perish in a drowning incident). In fact, the finale more closely parallels the classic closing scenes to the first remake of A Star is Born starring Judy Garland: suicide at sea, survivor talked out of her despondency by long-time professional friend, and a musical redemption (art triumphs over human frailty).^[1]

In a scene where Jay is sampling his 'new sound' for band members, ironically it is a member played by J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. who comments on how "out there" the music is. J Mascis is almost singly responsible for bringing the extended guitar solo to grunge, and his experimental and soulful wailings make him an ideal 'tongue-in-cheek' commentator.

Music[link]

Though actress Illeana Douglas apparently sings throughout the movie, her singing is always dubbed by singer Kristen Vigard, notable for being the very first girl to portray Annie in the 1976 workshop production before going to Broadway the following year.

In the beginning of the film, her character Edna/Denise performs a version of "Hey There," which was originally heard in the musical The Pajama Game, and was later popularized by singers such as Rosemary Clooney. Another of Denise's big musical moments occurs when she goes into the studio to lay down vocal tracks for "God Give Me Strength," an expensively produced single that fails to generate much excitement on the charts, thus alluding to Spector's recording of "River Deep, Mountain High" for Tina Turner (written by Spector, Greenwich and Barry). Singer Elvis Costello, who co-wrote "God Give Me Strength" (with Burt Bacharach) for the film, also wrote "Unwanted Number," which, in the movie, is crafted by Denise and Cazsatt as a tune for The Luminaries. The song causes a scandal because it tells a sympathetic story of an unmarried pregnant preteenager — bold for the early '60s, though comparable to similarly groundbreaking real-life songs of the era such as "He Hit Me (It Felt Like A Kiss)" about Little Eva, the Goffin-King's babysitter who was being regularly beaten by her boyfriend at the time.

Soundtrack CD[link]

Exclusions[link]

Although Grace of My Heart is chock full of musical sequences, the selections were pared down for the soundtrack CD. For instance, the fictional Luminaries, dubbed by girl group For Real, perform a half dozen tunes onscreen but are limited to three selections on the CD: Born to Love That Boy, I Do, and Unwanted Number. Likewise, the Williams Brothers, nephews of Andy Williams perform two songs in the film, Heartbreak Kid and Love Doesn't Ever Fail Us, but only the latter song appears on the soundtrack disc. Both Kristen Vigard's renditions of Hey There in the form of the contest version and the more polished demo are excluded from the CD, and her In Another World is jettisoned in favor of the fictional Stylettes' rendition (via Portrait). Vigard's performance of God Give Me Strength is also not on the soundtrack; instead the Elvis Costello/Burt Bacharach performance appears.

Inclusions[link]

Also on the CD, Jill Sobule sings the countrified waltz "Truth Is You Lied," complete with easy listening-style background chorus reminiscent of The Anita Kerr Singers.

Joni Mitchell[link]

"Man From Mars" was written by Joni Mitchell, and the song appears on the CD with Kristen Vigard singing the vocal from the film (dubbing Illeana Douglas's performance). A version of the song which featured Joni Mitchell's vocal, with the same music, was on the initial pressing of roughly 40,000 soundtrack CD copies. This CD version was recalled and the soundtrack was re-released one week later with Kristen Vigard's vocal, as heard in the movie.^[2] Mitchell later re-recorded the song with different-styled music for her 1998 album Taming the Tiger. The Mitchell version of "Man from Mars" from Grace of My Heart is very hard to come by.

The soundtrack was produced by Larry Klein, who had been Joni Mitchell's husband and producer for years but had divorced her prior to the making of this soundtrack. He contributed to the writing of several songs on the soundtrack and appears briefly several times in the movie as a recording engineer.

Additional credits[link]

Martin Scorsese is listed in the credits as Grace of My Heart's executive producer, and the film was co-edited by Thelma Schoonmaker, who won Academy Awards for her work on Scorsese's Raging Bull, The Aviator, and The Departed. Francois Sequin is the production designer, and the costumes are by Susan Bertram. The cast is rounded out by Lynne Adams, Peter Fonda, Chris Isaak, Lucinda Jenney, Patsy Kensit, Christina Pickles and Richard Schiff.

Impact[link]

The film was released in the fall of 1996, just ahead of Oscar winning actor Tom Hanks' directorial debut That Thing You Do!, which likewise covered the early to mid 1960s pop music scene and featured original, retro-styled songs on the soundtrack.

Grace of My Heart was Anders's fourth feature film, and followed her Border Radio (1987), Gas Food Lodging (1992), and Mi Vida Loca (1993).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Grace of My Heart at the Internet Movie Database
• Grace of My Heart at AllRovi
• Grace of My Heart at Rotten Tomatoes
• Grace of My Heart at Box Office Mojo

John Turturro
Turturro at the 2009 Tribeca Film Festival
Born	John Michael Turturro (1957-02-28) February 28, 1957 (age 55) Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Occupation	Actor, writer, director
Years active	1980–present
Spouse	Katherine Borowitz (1985-present)

John Michael Turturro (born February 28, 1957) is an American actor, writer and director known for his roles in the films Do the Right Thing (1989), Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), Quiz Show (1994), The Big Lebowski (1998), O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000) and the Transformers film series. He has appeared in over sixty films, and has worked frequently with the Coen brothers, Adam Sandler and Spike Lee.

Early life[link]

Turturro was born in Brooklyn, New York, the son of Katherine, an amateur jazz singer who worked in a Navy yard during World War II, and Nicholas Turturro, a carpenter and construction worker who fought as a Navy sailor in D-Day.^[1][2] Turturro's mother was Sicilian (from Aragona near Agrigento) and his father emigrated from Giovinazzo, Bari, Italy at the age of six.^[3] Turturro was raised a Roman Catholic^[4] and moved to the Rosedale section of Queens, New York with his family when he was six. He majored in drama at the State University of New York at New Paltz, and completed his MFA at the Yale School of Drama. He first appeared on film working as an extra in Martin Scorsese's critically acclaimed Raging Bull (1980).

Career[link]

Turturro at the 2010 Toronto International Film Festival

Turturro created the title role of John Patrick Shanley's Danny and the Deep Blue Sea at the Playwrights Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in 1983. He repeated it the following year Off-Broadway and won an Obie Award. Spike Lee liked Turturro's performance in Five Corners so much that he chose to cast him in Do the Right Thing. This movie was the first of a long-standing collaboration between the famous director and Turturro, which includes work together on a total of nine films—more than any other actor in the Lee oeuvre--^[5] including Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), Clockers (1995), Girl 6 (1996), He Got Game (1998), Summer of Sam (1999), She Hate Me (2004), and Miracle at St. Anna (2008). A versatile actor comfortable with both comedy and drama, Turturro also had an extended collaboration with the Coen Brothers, appearing in their films Miller's Crossing (1990), Barton Fink (1991), The Big Lebowski (1998), and O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000). He has also appeared in several of Adam Sandler's movies, such as Mr. Deeds (2002) and You Don't Mess with the Zohan (2008). He played a severely disturbed patient of Jack Nicholson's in the comedy Anger Management and played Johnny Depp's antagonist in Secret Window. Turturro hosted Saturday Night Live in 1994, where he spoofed his recent film [Show], being told he was ineligible to host unless he answered questions in a booth and if he failed, the honor of hosting would go to Joey Buttafuoco, who was actually backstage to witness Turturro's test.

He won an Emmy award for his portrayal of Adrian Monk's brother Ambrose Monk in the USA Network series Monk, and has reprised the role on numerous occasions. He has also been nominated and won many awards from film organizations such as Screen Actors Guild, Cannes Film Festival, Golden Globes and others.

Turturro produced and directed, as well as acted in, the film Illuminata (1999), which also starred his wife Katherine Borowitz. He wrote and directed the film Romance and Cigarettes (2005). In 2006 he appeared in Robert De Niro's The Good Shepherd, and as the Sector 7 agent Simmons in three films of the Transformers live-action series. In 2010 he directed (and had cameo on-screen appearances in) Passione, which chronicles the rich musical heritage of Naples, Italy.

As a stage director, his Broadway debut is set for October 2011 with "Relatively Speaking," in which he will guide an ensemble of veteran actors in a production of three comedic one-act plays, written by Elaine May, Woody Allen and Ethan Coen. The cast includes Julie Kavner, Marlo Thomas, Mark Linn-Baker and Steve Guttenberg.^[5]

Personal life[link]

Turturro's brother is actor Nicholas Turturro. Actress Aida Turturro and artist Ralph Turturro are his cousins. He has two children, Amedeo (born 1990) and Diego (born 2000), with his wife, actress Katherine Borowitz. ^[2]

Turturro participates as a member of the Jury for the NYICFF, a local New York City Film Festival dedicated to screening films for children between the ages of 3 and 18.^[6] He and his brother Nicholas are avid New York Yankees fans.^[7]

Filmography[link]

Audiobook[link]

• World War Z, 2007, as Serosha Garcia Alvarez

Television[link]

• Miami Vice, episode 1x16, 1985
• Monk, as Ambrose Monk
  • Mr. Monk and the Three Pies (2004)
  • Mr. Monk Goes Home Again (2005)
  • Mr. Monk's 100th Case (2008)
• The Bronx is Burning, 2007, as Billy Martin
• Flight of the Conchords, 2007, as himself

References[link]

External links[link]

• John Turturro at the Internet Movie Database
• John Turturro at AllRovi

Trailer trash (or trailer park trash) is a derogatory North American English term for poor people living in trailers or mobile homes, especially in trailer parks.^[1]

Music[link]

The song "Trailer Trash" appears on Modest Mouse's 1997 album The Lonesome Crowded West.

Toby Keith's song "Trailerhood" and Billy Ray Cyrus's song "Burn Down the Trailer Park" contain humorous lyrics about living in a trailer park.

Television[link]

The Canadian television series Trailer Park Boys, done in mockumentary style, documents the misadventures of the residents of the Sunnyvale Trailer Park.

See also[link]

• Ghetto fabulous
• Hillbilly
• Pikey
• Redneck
• White trash
• Yokel (synonymous with "bama", "corn pone", "country", "hayseed", "hick")
• Prejudice
• Stereotyping

References[link]

Elvis Costello
Costello at the 2009 International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada.
Background information
Birth name	Declan Patrick MacManus
Also known as	D.P. Costello The Imposter Little Hands of Concrete Napoleon Dynamite D.P.A. MacManus Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus The Right Reverend Jimmy Quickly
Born	(1954-08-25) 25 August 1954 (age 57) Paddington, London, England
Genres	Punk rock Pub rock New Wave
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter, record producer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, keyboards, bass, drums
Years active	1970–present
Labels	Stiff, Radar, F-Beat, Demon, Columbia, Warner Bros., Mercury, Island, Deutsche Grammophon, Lost Highway, Verve, HearMusic, Rykodisc, Rhino, Hip-O
Associated acts	The Attractions, The Imposters, Diana Krall, Burt Bacharach, Brodsky Quartet, Nick Lowe, Madness, The Strokes,The Specials,Squeeze,
Website	Elvis Costello.com
Notable instruments
Fender Jazzmaster Fender Telecaster

Elvis Costello (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter.^[1] He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre.^[2][3] Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader than that of most popular songs. His music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a "pop encyclopaedia", able to "reinvent the past in his own image".^[4]

Costello has won multiple awards in his career, including a Grammy Award, and has twice been nominated for the Brit Award for Best British Male.^[5] In 2003, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.^[6] In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[7]

Early life[link]

Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus^[8] in St Mary's Hospital, London, the son of Lilian Alda (née Ablett, b. 1927, Liverpool)^[9] and Ross MacManus (1927–2011), a musician and bandleader.^[10] He is of Irish heritage.^[11] Costello lived in Twickenham, attending Hounslow Secondary Modern School, which is now St Mark's Catholic Secondary School, in neighbouring Hounslow.^[12][13] With a musically inclined father (who was a jazz trumpeter and sang with The Joe Loss Orchestra),^[14] Costello's first broadcast recording was alongside his dad in a television commercial for R. White's Lemonade (I'm a Secret Lemonade Drinker). His father wrote and sang the song; Costello provided backing vocals. The advertisement won a silver award at the 1974 International Advertising Festival.

Costello moved with his Liverpool-born mother to Birkenhead in 1971. There, he formed his first band, a folk duo called Rusty, with Allan Mayes. After completing secondary school at St. Francis Xavier's College, he moved back to London where he next formed a band called Flip City,^[15] which had a style in the pub rock vein. They were active from 1974 through to early 1976. Around this time, Costello adopted the stage name D.P. Costello. His father had performed under the name Day Costello, and Elvis has said in interviews that he took this name as a tribute to his father.

To support himself, he worked at a number of office jobs, most famously at Elizabeth Arden – immortalised in the lyrics of "I'm Not Angry" as the "vanity factory" – where he worked as a data entry clerk. He worked for a short period as a computer operator at the Midland Bank computer centre in Bootle. He continued to write songs, and began actively looking for a solo recording contract. On the basis of a demo tape, he was signed to independent label Stiff Records. His manager at Stiff, Jake Riviera, suggested a name change, combining Elvis Presley's first name and Costello, his father's stage name.^[16]

Career[link]

1970s[link]

Costello's first single for Stiff was "Less Than Zero", released on 25 March 1977. Two months later, his debut album, My Aim Is True (1977), was released to moderate commercial success (No. 14 in the UK and, later, Top 40 in the US) with Costello appearing on the cover in what became his trademark oversize glasses, bearing some resemblance to Buddy Holly. Stiff's records were initially distributed only in the UK, which meant that Costello's first album and singles were initially available in the US as imports only. In an attempt to change this, Costello was arrested for busking outside a London convention of CBS Records executives, protesting that no US record company had yet seen fit to release his records in the United States.^[17] Costello signed to CBS's Columbia Records label in the US a few months later.

The backing for Costello's debut album was provided by American West Coast band Clover, a country outfit living in England whose members would later go on to join Huey Lewis and the News and The Doobie Brothers. Later in 1977, Costello formed his own permanent backing band, The Attractions, consisting of Steve Nieve (born Steve Nason; piano), Bruce Thomas (bass guitar), and Pete Thomas (drums; unrelated to Bruce Thomas). Growing antipathy between Costello and Bruce Thomas contributed to the Attractions' first split in 1986, and the rift was exacerbated by what Costello felt was his unflattering portrayal in Thomas' 1990 roman à clef The Big Wheel. Despite this, the original group reunited for the 1994 album Brutal Youth and toured together over the next two years, but split for good in 1996, although Nieve and Pete Thomas continued to back Costello through various touring and recording line-ups and as of 2011 are still members of his current backing group The Imposters. The split between Costello and Bruce Thomas appears permanent, however; Bruce made a brief appearance with his former bandmates when the group was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2003, but when Costello was asked why Bruce did not play with them at the event, he reportedly replied, "I only work with professional musicians."

Costello released his first major hit single, "Watching the Detectives", which was recorded with Nieve and the pair of Steve Goulding (drums) and Andrew Bodnar (bass), both members of Graham Parker's backing band The Rumour (whom he had used to audition for The Attractions).

Elvis Costello, in Massey Hall, Toronto, April 1979

On 17 December 1977, Costello and The Attractions appeared as the musical guest act on the episode of Saturday Night Live as a last minute fill-in for the Sex Pistols. Scheduled to play "Less Than Zero", he surprised the SNL crew by abruptly stopping the song mid-intro, and launching into "Radio Radio." Following a whirlwind tour with other Stiff artists – captured on the Live Stiffs album, notable for Costello's recording of the Burt Bacharach/Hal David standard "I Just Don't Know What to Do With Myself" – the band recorded This Year's Model (1978). Some of the more popular tracks include the British hit "(I Don't Want to Go To) Chelsea" and "Pump It Up." His U.S. record company saw Costello as such a priority that his last name replaced the word Columbia on the label of the disc's original pressing. The Attractions' first tour of Australia in December 1978 was notable for controversial performance at Sydney's Regent Theatre when, angered by the group's failure to perform an encore after their brief 35-minute set, audience members destroyed some of the seating.^[18]

A tour of the U.S. and Canada also saw the release of the much-bootlegged Canadian promo-only Live at the El Mocambo, recorded at a Toronto rock club, which finally saw an official release as part of the 2½ Years box set in 1993. It was during the ensuing United States tour that Costello met and developed a relationship with former Playboy model Bebe Buell. Their on-again-off-again courtship would last until 1984 and would allegedly become a deep well of inspiration for Costello's songwriting.

In 1979, he released his third LP Armed Forces (originally to have been titled Emotional Fascism, a phrase that appeared on the LP's inner sleeve). Both the album and the single "Oliver's Army" went to No. 2 in the UK, and the opening track "Accidents Will Happen" gained wide television exposure thanks to its innovative animated music video, directed by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton. Costello also found time in 1979 to produce the debut album for the 2 Tone ska revival band The Specials.

Costello's standing in the U.S. was bruised for a time when in March 1979, during a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio Holiday Inn bar, the singer referred to James Brown as a "jive-ass nigger", then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant, nigger".^[19][20] Costello apologised at a New York City press conference a few days later, claiming that he had been drunk and had been attempting to be obnoxious in order to bring the conversation to a swift conclusion, not anticipating that Bramlett would bring his comments to the press. According to Costello, "it became necessary for me to outrage these people with about the most obnoxious and offensive remarks that I could muster." In his liner notes for the expanded version of Get Happy!!, Costello writes that some time after the incident he had declined an offer to meet Charles out of guilt and embarrassment, though Charles himself had forgiven Costello saying "Drunken talk isn't meant to be printed in the paper." Costello worked extensively in Britain's Rock Against Racism campaign both before and after the incident. The incident inspired his Get Happy!! song "Riot Act."^[21]

Costello is also an avid country music fan and has cited George Jones as his favourite country singer. In 1977, he appeared in Jones' duet album My Very Special Guests, contributing "Stranger in the House", which they later performed together on an HBO special dedicated to Jones.

1980s[link]

The soul-infused Get Happy!! would be the first, and—along with King of America–possibly most successful, of Costello's many experiments with genres beyond those he is normally associated with. The single, "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" was an old Sam and Dave song (though Costello increased the tempo considerably). Lyrically, the songs are full of Costello's signature word play, to the point that he later felt he had become something of a self-parody and toned it down on later releases; he has mockingly described himself in interviews as "rock and roll's Scrabble champion." His only 1980 appearance in North America was at the Heatwave festival in August near Toronto.

In 1981, the band released Trust amidst growing tensions within the band, particularly between Bruce and Pete Thomas. In the U.S., the single "Watch Your Step" was released and played live on Tom Snyder's Tomorrow show, and received airplay on FM rock radio. In the UK, the single "Clubland" scraped the lower reaches of the charts; follow-up single "From a Whisper to a Scream" (a duet with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze) became the first Costello single in over four years to completely miss the charts. Costello also co-produced Squeeze's popular 1981 album East Side Story (with Roger Bechirian) and also performed backing vocals on the group's hit single "Tempted".

Following Trust, Costello released Almost Blue, an album of country music cover songs written by the likes of Hank Williams ("Why Don't You Love Me (Like You Used to Do?)"), Merle Haggard ("Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down") and Gram Parsons ("How Much I Lied"). The album was a tribute to the country music he had grown up listening to, especially George Jones. It received mixed reviews. The first pressings of the record in the UK bore a sticker with the message: "WARNING: This album contains country & western music and may cause a radical reaction in narrow minded listeners." Almost Blue did spawn a surprise UK hit single in a version of George Jones' "Good Year for the Roses" (written by Jerry Chesnut), which reached #6.

Imperial Bedroom (1982) marked a much darker sound, due in part to the production of Geoff Emerick, famed for engineering several Beatles records. Imperial Bedroom remains one of his most critically acclaimed records, but again failed to produce any hit singles. Costello has said he disliked the marketing pitch for the album. The album also featured Costello's song "Almost Blue"; jazz singer and trumpeter Chet Baker would later perform and record a version of this song.

In 1983, he released Punch the Clock, featuring female backing vocal duo (Afrodiziak) and a four-piece horn section (The TKO Horns), alongside The Attractions. Clive Langer (who co-produced with Alan Winstanley), provided Costello with a melody which eventually became "Shipbuilding", which featured a trumpet solo by Chet Baker. Prior to the release of Costello's own version, a version of the song was a minor UK hit for former Soft Machine drummer Robert Wyatt.

Under the pseudonym The Imposter, Costello released "Pills and Soap", an attack on the changes in British society brought on by Thatcherism, released to coincide with the run-up to the 1983 UK general election. Punch the Clock also generated an international hit in the single "Everyday I Write the Book", aided by a music video featuring lookalikes of the Prince and Princess of Wales undergoing domestic strife in a suburban home. The song became Costello's first Top 40 hit single in the U.S. Also in the same year, Costello provided vocals on a version of the Madness song "Tomorrow's Just Another Day" released as a B-side on the single of the same name.

Tensions within the band—notably between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas—were beginning to tell, and Costello announced his retirement and the break-up of the group shortly before they were to record Goodbye Cruel World (1984). Costello would later say of this record that they had "got it as wrong as you can in terms of the execution". The record was poorly received upon its initial release; the liner notes to the 1995 Rykodisc re-release, penned by Costello, begin with the words "Congratulations!, you've just purchased our worst album". Costello's retirement, although short-lived, was accompanied by two compilations, Elvis Costello: The Man in the UK, Europe and Australia, and The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions in the U.S.

In 1985, he appeared in the Live Aid benefit concert in England, singing the Beatles' "All You Need Is Love" as a solo artist. (The event was overrunning and Costello was asked to "ditch the band".) Costello introduced the song as an "old northern English folk song", and the audience was invited to sing the chorus. In the same year Costello teamed up with friend T-Bone Burnett for the single "The People's Limousine" under the moniker of The Coward Brothers. That year, Costello also produced Rum Sodomy & the Lash for the Irish punk/folk band The Pogues.

By 1986, Costello was preparing to make a comeback. Working in the U.S. with Burnett, a band containing a number of Elvis Presley's sidemen (including James Burton and Jerry Scheff), and minor input from the Attractions, he produced King of America, an acoustic guitar-driven album with a country sound. It was billed as by "The Costello Show featuring the Attractions and Confederates" in the UK and Europe and "The Costello Show featuring Elvis Costello" in North America. Around this time he legally changed his name back to Declan MacManus, adding Aloysius as an extra middle name. Costello retooled his upcoming tour to allow for multiple nights in each city, playing one night with The Confederates (James Burton et al.), one night with The Attractions, and one night solo acoustic. In May 1986, Costello performed at Self Aid, a benefit concert held in Dublin that focused on the chronic unemployment which was widespread in Ireland at that time.

Later that year, Costello returned to the studio with the Attractions and recorded Blood and Chocolate, which was lauded for a post-punk fervour not heard since 1978's This Year's Model. It also marked the return of producer Nick Lowe, who had produced Costello's first five albums. While Blood and Chocolate failed to chart a hit single of any significance, it did produce what has since become one of Costello's signature concert songs, "I Want You." On this album, Costello adopted the alias Napoleon Dynamite, the name he later attributed to the character of the emcee that he played during the vaudeville-style tour to support Blood and Chocolate. (The pseudonym had previously been used in 1982, when the B-side single "Imperial Bedroom" was credited to Napoleon Dynamite & The Royal Guard, and was later appropriated by the 2004 film Napoleon Dynamite). In 1989, Costello, with a new contract with Warner Bros., released Spike, which spawned his biggest single in America, the Top 20 hit "Veronica", one of several songs Costello co-wrote with Paul McCartney in that period (see Collaborations).

1990s[link]

In 1991, having grown a long beard, Costello released Mighty Like a Rose, which featured the single "The Other Side of Summer." He also found time to co-compose and co-produce, with Richard Harvey, the title and incidental music for the mini-series G.B.H. by Alan Bleasdale. This entirely instrumental, and largely orchestral, soundtrack garnered a BAFTA, for Best Music for a TV Series for the pair.

In 1993, Costello experimented with classical music with a critically acclaimed collaboration with the Brodsky Quartet^[22][23] on The Juliet Letters. During this period, Costello wrote a full album's worth of material for Wendy James, and these songs became the tracks on her 1993 solo album Now Ain't the Time for Your Tears. Costello returned to rock and roll the following year with a project that reunited him with The Attractions, Brutal Youth. In 1995, Costello released Kojak Variety, an album of cover songs recorded five years earlier, and followed in 1996 with an album of songs originally written for other artists, All This Useless Beauty. This was the final album of original material that he issued under his Warner Bros. contract. In the spring of 1996, Costello played a series of intimate club dates, backed only by Nieve on the piano, in support of All This Useless Beauty. An ensuing summer and fall tour with the Attractions proved to be the death knell for the band. With relations between Costello and bassist Bruce Thomas at a breaking point, Costello announced that the current tour would be the Attractions' last. The quartet performed their final U.S. show in Seattle, Washington on 1 September 1996, before wrapping up their tour in Japan. To fulfill his contractual obligations to Warner Bros., Costello released a greatest hits album titled Extreme Honey (1997). It contained an original track titled "The Bridge I Burned", featuring Costello's son, Matt, on bass. In the intervening period, Costello had served as artistic chair for the 1995 Meltdown Festival, which gave him the opportunity to explore his increasingly eclectic musical interests. His involvement in the festival yielded a one-off live EP with jazz guitarist Bill Frisell, which featured both cover material and a few of his own songs.

In 1998, Costello signed a multi-label contract with Polygram Records, sold by its parent company the same year to become part of the Universal Music Group. Costello released his new work on what he deemed the suitable imprimatur within the family of labels. His first new release as part of this contract involved a collaboration with Burt Bacharach. Their work had commenced earlier, in 1996, on a song called "God Give Me Strength" for the movie Grace of My Heart. This led the pair to write and record the critically acclaimed album Painted From Memory, released under his new contract in 1998, on the Mercury Records label, featuring songs that were largely inspired by the dissolution of his marriage to Cait O'Riordan. Costello and Bacharach performed several concerts with a full orchestral backing, and also recorded an updated version of Bacharach's "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for the soundtrack to Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me, with both appearing in the film to perform the song. He also wrote "I Throw My Toys Around" for The Rugrats Movie and performed it with No Doubt. The same year, he collaborated with Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains on "The Long Journey Home" on the soundtrack of the PBS/Disney mini-series of the same name. The soundtrack won a Grammy that year.

In 1999, Costello contributed a version of "She", released in 1974 by Charles Aznavour and Herbert Kretzmer, for the soundtrack of the film Notting Hill, with Trevor Jones producing. For the 25th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, Costello was invited to the program, where he re-enacted his abrupt song-switch: This time, however, he interrupted the Beastie Boys' "Sabotage", and they acted as his backing group for "Radio Radio".

2000 to present[link]

Costello performing at Glastonbury, 2005

In 2000, Costello appeared at the Town Hall Theatre, New York, in Steve Nieve's opera Welcome to the Voice, alongside Ron Sexsmith and John Flansburgh of They Might Be Giants. In 2001, Costello was artist-in-residence at UCLA and wrote the music for a new ballet. He produced and appeared on an album of pop songs for the classical singer Anne Sofie von Otter. He released the album When I Was Cruel in 2002 on Island Records, and toured with a new band, the Imposters (essentially the Attractions but with a different bass player, Davey Faragher, formerly of Cracker). He appeared as himself in the "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" episode of The Simpsons. On 23 February 2003, Costello, along with Bruce Springsteen, Steve Van Zandt, and Dave Grohl, performed a version of The Clash's "London Calling" at the 45th Grammy Awards ceremony, in honour of Clash frontman Joe Strummer, who had died the previous December. In March, Elvis Costello & the Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. He announced his engagement in May to Canadian jazz singer and pianist Diana Krall, whom he had seen in concert and then met backstage at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. That September, he released North, an album of piano-based ballads concerning the breakdown of his former marriage, and his falling in love with Krall. Also that year, Costello made an appearance in the television series Frasier as a folk singer in the Cafe Nervosa, sending Frasier and Niles on a search for a new coffee bar.^[24][25]

The song "Scarlet Tide" (co-written by Costello and T-Bone Burnett and used in the film Cold Mountain) was nominated for a 2004 Academy Award; he performed it at the awards ceremony with Alison Krauss, who sang the song on the official soundtrack. Costello co-wrote many songs on Krall's 2004 CD, The Girl in the Other Room, the first of hers to feature several original compositions. In July 2004, Costello's first full-scale orchestral work, Il Sogno, was performed in New York. The work, a ballet after Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, was commissioned by Italian dance troupe Aterballeto, and received critical acclaim from the classical music critics. Performed by the London Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas, the recording was released on CD in September by Deutsche Grammophon. Costello released the album The Delivery Man, recorded in Oxford, Mississippi, and released on Lost Highway Records, in September of the same year, and it was hailed as one of his best albums.

Costello's hand prints on the European Walk of Fame, Rotterdam.

A CD recording of a collaboration with Marian McPartland on her show Piano Jazz was released in 2005. It featured Costello singing six jazz standards and two of his own songs, accompanied by McPartland on piano. In November, Costello started recording a new album with Allen Toussaint and producer Joe Henry. The River in Reverse was released in the UK on the Verve label the following year in May.

A 2005 tour included a gig at Glastonbury that Costello considered to be so dreadful that he said "I don't care if I ever play England again. That gig made up my mind I wouldn't come back. I don't get along with it. We lost touch. It's 25 years since I lived there. I don't dig it, they don't dig me....British music fans don't have the same attitude to age as they do in America, where young people come to check out, say Willie Nelson. They feel some connection with him and find a role for that music in their lives."^[26]

In a studio recording of Nieve's opera Welcome to the Voice (2006, Deutsche Grammophon), Costello interpreted the character of Chief of Police, with Barbara Bonney, Robert Wyatt, Sting and Amanda Roocroft, and the album reached No. 2 in the Billboard classical charts. Costello later reprised the piece on the stage of the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in 2008, with Sting, Joe Sumner of Fiction Plane (Sting's son) and Sylvia Schwartz. Also released in 2006 was a live recording of a concert with the Metropole Orkest at the North Sea Jazz Festival, entitled My Flame Burns Blue. The soundtrack for House M.D. featured Costello's interpretation of "Beautiful" by Christina Aguilera, with the song appearing in the second episode of Series 2.

Costello was commissioned to write a chamber opera by the Danish Royal Opera, Copenhagen, on the subject of Hans Christian Andersen's infatuation with Swedish soprano Jenny Lind. Called The Secret Songs it was unfinished.^[27] In a performance in 2007 directed by Kasper Bech Holten at the Opera's studio theatre (Takelloftet), finished songs were interspersed with pieces from Costello's 1993 collaborative classical album The Juliet Letters, featuring Danish soprano Sine Bundgaard as Lind. The 2009 album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane includes material from Secret Songs.

On 22 April 2008, Momofuku was released on Lost Highway Records, the same imprint that released The Delivery Man, his previous studio album. The album was, at least initially, released exclusively on vinyl (with a code to download a digital copy). That summer, in support of the album, Costello toured with The Police on the final leg of their 2007/2008 Reunion Tour. Costello played a homecoming gig at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall on 25 June 2006.^[28] and, that month, gave his first performance in Poland, appearing with The Imposters for the closing gig of the Malta theatre festival in Poznań.

In July 2008, Costello (as Declan McManus) was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Liverpool.

From late 2008 into 2010, Costello hosted Channel 4/CTV's series Spectacle in which Costello talked and performed with stars in various fields, styled similarly to Inside the Actors Studio. Between its two seasons, the show compiled 20 episodes, including one where Costello was interviewed by actress Mary-Louise Parker.^[29]

Costello was featured on Fall Out Boy's 2008 album Folie à Deux, providing vocals on the track "What a Catch, Donnie", along with other artists who are friends with the band.

Costello appeared in Stephen Colbert's television special A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All. In the program, he was eaten by a bear, but later saved by Santa Claus; he also sang a duet with Colbert. The special was first aired on 23 November 2008.^[30] Costello released Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, a collaboration with T-Bone Burnett, on 9 June 2009. Burnett previously worked with Costello on King of America and Spike.^[31] It was his first on the Starbucks Hear Music label and a return to country music in the manner of Good Year for the Roses.

Costello performing in tribute to music legends Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen who were the recipients of the first annual PEN Awards for songwriting excellence, at the JFK Presidential Library, in Boston, Massachusetts on 26 February 2012.

Costello appeared as himself in the finale of the third season of 30 Rock and sang in the episode's celebrity telethon, Kidney Now!.^[32] The episode references Costello's given name when Jack Donaghy accuses him of concealing his true identity: "Declan McManus, international art thief."

In May 2009, Costello made a surprise cameo appearance on-stage at the Beacon Theater in New York as part of Spinal Tap's Unwigged and Unplugged show, singing their fictional 1965 hit "Gimme Some Money" with the band backing him up.

On 15 May 2010, Costello announced he would withdraw from a concert performed in Israel in opposition to Israel's treatment of Palestinians. In a statement on his website, Costello wrote, "It has been necessary to dial out the falsehoods of propaganda, the double game and hysterical language of politics, the vanity and self-righteousness of public communiqués from cranks in order to eventually sift through my own conflicted thoughts."^[33]

Also in 2010, Elvis Costello appeared as himself in David Simon's television series, Treme.^[34] Costello released the album National Ransom in autumn of 2010.

In 2011, Elvis Costello appeared as himself once again, this time on Sesame Street to perform a song with Elmo and Cookie Monster, titled "Monster Went and Ate My Red 2", a play on (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes. The same year, Costello performed "Taken for a Fool", live from Madison Square Garden with The Strokes.

On 26 February 2012, Costello paid tribute to music legends Chuck Berry and Leonard Cohen who were the recipients of the first annual PEN Awards for songwriting excellence, at the JFK Presidential Library, in Boston, Massachusetts on 26 February 2012.^[35]

Personal life[link]

Costello has been married three times, the first time to Mary Burgoyne in 1974, with whom he had a son.^[26]

In 1985, Costello became involved with Cait O'Riordan, former bassist for the English/Irish group The Pogues, while he was producing The Pogues' album Rum Sodomy and the Lash.^{[citation needed]} They married in 1986 and split up by the end of 2002.^[26]

Costello became engaged to pianist Diana Krall in May 2003,^[26] and married her at the home of Elton John on 6 December that year.^[36] Krall gave birth to twin sons, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, on 6 December 2006 in New York City.^[37]

A vegetarian since the early 1980s, Costello says he was moved to reject meat after seeing the documentary The Animals Film (1982), which also helped inspire his song "Pills and Soap" (from Punch the Clock, 1983).^[14]

Humanitarian causes[link]

Costello sits on the Advisory Board of the Board of Directors of the Jazz Foundation of America.^[38][39] Costello began working with the Jazz Foundation in 2001, and has been a featured performer in their annual benefit A Great Night in Harlem^[40] since 2006. Costello has donated his time working with the Jazz Foundation of America^[41] to save the homes and the lives of America's elderly jazz and blues musicians, including musicians who survived Hurricane Katrina.

Collaborations[link]

In addition to his major recorded collaborations with Bacharach, the Brodsky Quartet, and von Otter, Costello has frequently been involved in other collaborations.

In 1987, Costello began a long-running songwriting collaboration with Paul McCartney. They wrote a number of songs together, including:

• "Back On My Feet", the B-side of McCartney's 1987 single "Once Upon a Long Ago", later added as a bonus track on the 1993 re-issue of McCartney's Flowers in the Dirt
• Costello's "Veronica" and "Pads, Paws and Claws" from Spike (1989) (Also, McCartney plays Hofner bass but does not have a writing credit for "This Town" – the opening song for the album.)
• "So Like Candy" and "Playboy to a Man" from Mighty Like a Rose (1991)
• McCartney's "My Brave Face", "Don't Be Careless Love", "That Day Is Done" and "You Want Her Too" from Flowers in the Dirt (1989)
• "The Lovers That Never Were" and "Mistress and Maid" from Off the Ground (1993).
• "Shallow Grave" from All This Useless Beauty (1996).

Costello talked about their collaboration:

When we sat down together he wouldn't have any sloppy bits in there. That was interesting. The ironic part is, if it sounds like he wrote it, I probably did and vice versa. He wanted to do all the ones with lots of words and all on one note, and I'm the one trying to work in the "Please Please Me" harmony all over the place.^{[citation needed]}

• In 1987, he appeared on the HBO special Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night, which featured his long-time idol Roy Orbison, and was invited back to Saturday Night Live for the first time since 1977.

• In 1988, Costello co-wrote "At the Other End (of the Telescope)" with Aimee Mann; this song appears on the Til Tuesday album Everything's Different Now.

• In 2000, Costello wrote lyrics to "Green Song", a solo cello piece by Svante Henryson; this song appears on the Anne Sofie von Otter album For the Stars.

• In 2005, Costello performed with Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. They played both Costello and Green Day songs together, including "Alison", "No Action", "Basket Case" and "Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)".

• In 2007, Costello collaborated with the Argentinean/Uruguay an electro-tango band Bajofondo on the song "Fairly Right" from the album Mar Dulce.

• In 2008, Costello collaborated with Fall Out Boy on the track "What a Catch, Donnie" from their album Folie a Deux.

• In Jenny Lewis' 2008 release, Acid Tongue, Costello provided vocals for the song "Carpetbaggers".

• In November 2009, Costello appeared live with Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band at Madison Square Garden and performed the Jackie Wilson song, Higher and Higher.^[42]

• In December 2009, it was announced that Costello would be portraying The Shape in the upcoming album Ghost Brothers of Darkland County, a collaboration between rock singer John Mellencamp and novelist Stephen King.^[43]

• In February 2010, Costello appeared in the live cinecast of Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion, singing some of his own songs, and participating in many of the show's other musical and acting performances.

• In April 2011, played the song "Taken For a Fool" with The Strokes in Madison Square Garden.

• On 30 April 2011, played the song "Pump it Up" with The Odds before the start of a Vancouver Canucks playoff game at Rogers Arena in Vancouver BC.^[44]

Artistic significance[link]

Costello has worked with Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Lucinda Williams, Kid Rock, Lee Konitz, Brian Eno, and Rubén Blades.

Costello is also a music fan, and often champions the works of others in print. He has written several pieces for the magazine Vanity Fair, including the summary of what a perfect weekend of music would be. He has contributed to two Grateful Dead tribute albums and covered Jerry Garcia/Robert Hunter tunes such as "Ship of Fools", "Friend of the Devil", "It Must Have Been the Roses", "Ripple" and "Tennessee Jed" in concert. His collaboration with Bacharach honoured Bacharach's place in pop music history. Costello also appeared in documentaries about singers Dusty Springfield, Brian Wilson, Wanda Jackson, Ron Sexsmith and Memphis, Tennessee-based Stax Records. He has also interviewed one of his own influences, Joni Mitchell. He was instrumental in bringing Sexsmith to a wider audience in 1995 by championing his debut album in Mojo magazine, even appearing on the cover with the album.^[45]

In 2004, Rolling Stone Magazine ranked him No. 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.^[46][47]

Discography[link]

Costello has released over 30 studio albums on his own and with the Attractions, the Imposters, or others. He has also released five live albums: Live at the El Mocambo, Deep Dead Blue, Costello & Nieve, My Flame Burns Blue, Live at Hollywood High, and The Return Of The Spectacular Spinning Songbook. There have also been numerous compilations, box sets, and reissues by labels such as Rykodisc, Demon, Rhino, and Universal Music Enterprises.

Filmography[link]

Actor[link]

• 1979 film debut as "The Earl of Manchester" in Americathon
• 1984 as "Henry Scully" in the UK TV series, Scully
• 1984 as "Stone Deaf A&R Man" in "The Bullshitters", a Comic Strip film first aired on Channel 4.
• 1985 as inept magician "Rosco de Ville" in the Alan Bleasdale film, No Surrender
• 1987 as "Hives the Butler" in the Alex Cox film, Straight to Hell, starring Joe Strummer and Courtney Love
• 1994 as himself on The Larry Sanders Show in the episode "People's Choice"
• 1997 as a barman in Spice World.
• 1999 as himself performing "I'll Never Fall In Love Again" with Burt Bacharach in Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me
• 1999 as a younger version of himself in 200 Cigarettes
• 2001 as himself performing "Fly Me to the Moon" on the series finale of 3rd Rock from the Sun
• 2002 as himself on the episode "How I Spent My Strummer Vacation" of The Simpsons
• 2003 as Ben on Frasier, one episode
• 2004 as himself in the UK TV Dead Ringers New Year Special, apparently and reportedly having serendipitously entered a filming venue^[48]
• 2004 as himself in Two and a Half Men – Season 2, Episode 1^[49]
• 2006 as himself in Delirious
• 2006 as himself in Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
• 2008 as himself in "A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift of All!"
• 2009 as himself on the episode of 30 Rock, "Kidney Now!"^[50]
• 2010 as himself on Treme

Soundtrack[link]

• 2003 Academy Award nomination for best original song, "The Scarlet Tide", in Cold Mountain

Bibliography[link]

• Costello, Elvis. A Singing Dictionary. London: Plangent Visions Music; New York, N.Y.: Exclusive selling agent for the United States and Canada, Warner Bros. Publications, 1980. ISBN 0-7692-1505-X. Sheet music, chords, and lyrics for works 1977–1980.

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Paumgarten, Nick (8 November 2010). "Profiles: Brilliant Mistakes". The New Yorker 86 (35): 48–59. 

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Elvis Costello

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Elvis Costello

• ElvisCostello.com
• Official Elvis Costello Lost Highway Records Artist Page
• Elvis Costello at the Internet Movie Database
• Elvis Costello at Allmusic. Retrieved 5 December 2010.
• The Elvis Costello Home Page Wiki

Allison Anders (born November 16, 1954) is an American film and television director. Anders has directed many independent films, on which she frequently collaborates with fellow UCLA film school graduate Kurt Voss.

Biography[link]

According to an article in Creative a series of adventures that often ended in jails and foster homes—experiences she credits with giving her raw inspiration for her cinematic portraits of rural Americans."^[1] At eighteen, she moved to England, then returned to Los Angeles to raise her first child. She attended the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television and was granted a Nicholl Fellowship by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Her screenplay "Lost Highway" (unrelated to the David Lynch film of the same title) also earned her a Samuel Goldwyn Writing Award.

Her first film effort co-written and co-directed by Kurt Voss and Dean Lent was the punk music-heavy Border Radio, which was nominated for Best Feature of 1989 by the Independent Feature Project. Anders followed up with her popular 1992 film Gas Food Lodging, for which she won a New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best New Director, and for which actress Fairuza Balk won an Independent Spirit Award. The film received five Spirit Award nominations including Best Director and Best Screenplay. Gas Food Lodging also won the Deauville Film Festival Critics Award. The film was also nominated for the Golden Bear at the 42nd Berlin International Film Festival.^[2]

Her next film for Cineville was Mi Vida Loca (My Crazy Life), about girl gangs in the Echo Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, where Anders lived. It premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 1993, and saw wide release in 1994.^[3]

In 1995, she was awarded a "genius grant" by the MacArthur Foundation. Although the 1995 collaborative film Four Rooms in which she participated in was largely panned by critics, it now has a cult following^{[citation needed]}. In 1996, she won more acclaim with Grace of My Heart, the story of a backroom songwriter (Illeana Douglas) who tires of making other people famous. Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach had their first collaboration on her film and were nominated for a Grammy Award.

In the late 1980s, Anders had become friends with some members of the pop group Duran Duran, and frequently inserted small references to the band in her films (character names, posters on walls, and so on). In 1999, after bassist John Taylor had left Duran Duran and was beginning to launch an acting career, she co-wrote and co-directed the film Sugar Town with Kurt Voss about the Los Angeles film and music industry, which starred several musical friends of hers, including Taylor, X singer John Doe, Spandau Ballet bassist Martin Kemp, and singer/actor Michael Des Barres. The film was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards, one for Best Film and one for best Newcomer for Jade Gordon. The film won the Fantasportoaward for Best Screenplay for Anders and Voss.

Her 2001 film Things Behind the Sun, dealing with the long-term aftermath of a rape, won an Emmy Award nomination for actor Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, 3 Independent Spirit Award Nominations: Don Cheadle for Best Supporting Actor, Kim Dickens for Best Actress, and Best Film. She and co-writer Kurt Voss received a nomination for the Edgar Award. The film was awarded the SHINE Award as well as the Peabody Award.

Anders began directing shows for broadcast and cable television in 1999, including several episodes in the second and third seasons of Sex and the City, as well as episodes of Grosse Pointe and Cold Case, The L Word , Men In Trees, and What About Brian?.

In 2002 Anders received the Spirit Of Silver Lake Award from the Silver Lake Film Festival. In 2003 Anders became a Distinguished Professor at UC Santa Barbara where she teaches in the Film And Media Studies Department one quarter every year.

In 2006 she appeared in the road-trip documentary Wanderlust. 2007 saw the DVD release of Border Radio as part of the Criterion Collection.

Anders is the co-founder with musician daughter Tiffany Anders of the Don't Knock The Rock Film And Music Festival in Los Angeles. She has also contributed to the web series Trailers From Hell.^{[citation needed]}. First cousin of musician Mark Fosson.

In 2011 she directed an episode of John Wells' productions Southland.

Filmography[link]

• Border Radio (1987)
• Gas, Food Lodging (1992)
• Mi Vida Loca (1994)
• Four Rooms (1995)
• Grace of My Heart (1996)
• Sugar Town (1999)
• Things Behind the Sun (2001)
• A Crush on You (2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Allison Anders at the Internet Movie Database