Elvis Costello & Dave Edmunds // "Girls Talk"

It’s really rare that I like covers better than originals.  I think this happens more often than I’d like to admit, but I just have this innate notion to always favor the original version of a song.  It probably comes from growing up in Boston and rooting for the Red Sox (the underdogs)!  Anyways, as hesitant as I am to admit it, Dave Edmunds’s cover of Elvis Costello’s Girls Talk takes the song to another level.

My favorite thing about this song is the sarcasm in the lyrics.  When Costello sings the song, it’s a little anxiety-ridden.   However, when Edmunds covers it he adds that necessary sarcastic tone to go along with the lyrics and (as the charts demonstrated) and turn it into a hit song.   He adds a bounce and up-beat aspect that the song needs. 

To me, this seems like one of those songs that would be written in a moment of thought.  As if Costello was sitting in a café or on a train and looking around at girls gossiping and, as we tend to do, assuming that they were talking about him.  Yet, it is vague who the lyrics of directed at and who the victim is.  Of course, it just wouldn’t be an Elvis Costello song without a few vicious remarks (You may not be an old-fashioned girl / But you're gonna get dated").  Note the pronunciation of dated!

This is one of those songs that I imagine would be universally liked.  Check out both versions, below:

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