Elvis Costello is a singer and songwriter whose career spans five decades and over 30 albums. He’s a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and the Songwriter Hall of Fame. He’s won Grammy Awards, Ivor Novello Awards, a BAFTA, and he’s on Rolling Stone’s list of the greatest songwriters of all time. He put out his first album, My Aim Is True, in 1977. This month, he released a 49th anniversary edition of the album. So for this episode, I spoke to Elvis Costello about the making of “Alison,” from that debut album. Coming up, you’ll hear the isolated tracks from the original recording, as well as some additional parts that didn’t make the cut. And, in discussing the origin story of his song, we also ended up talking about the origin story of Elvis Costello himself.
You can buy or stream “Alison” here and you can buy the 49th Anniversary Edition box set of My Aim Is True here.
Illustration by Carlos Lerma.
in this episode:
Nick Lowe – producer
John McFee – guitar
Johnny Ciambotti- bass
Sean Hopper – keyboards
MMicky Shine – drums
Stiff Records
Clover
“Imagination (Is A Powerful Deceiver)”
Pathway Studios
“Ghetto Child” – written by Thom Bell for The Spinners
“Alison” cover by Linda Rondstadt
