Elvis Costello – "I'm Not Angry" (1977)

Spent all my time in a vanity factory

Wonderin’ when they’re gonna come

And take it all back

After completing secondary school in Liverpool, the teenaged Declan Patrick MacManus – who would later become Elvis Costello – worked as a data entry clerk at Elizabeth Arden, a well-known cosmetics and fragrance company.  

The line from today’s featured song about spending time in a “vanity factory” is a reference to that Elizabeth Arden job.

*     *     *     *     *

Declan MacManus’s father Ross was a jazz trumpeter and singer who called himself Day Costello, and his son performed in clubs and pubs in London as D. P. Costello.  When he signed his first record contract, his manager suggested that he use Elvis as his first name even though he looked a lot more like Buddy Holly than Elvis Presley in those days.

MacManus legally changed his name to Elvis Costello in 1977 – the same year that his first album, My Aim Is True, was released – but changed it back to Declan MacManus in 1986.

*     *     *     *     *

MacManus and jazz pianist Diana Krall were married in 2003 at Elton John’s castle in England.

Krall has won five Grammys but he has taken home only one – the 1999 Grammy for “Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals,” which he and Burt Bacharach shared for their recording of “I Still Have That Other Girl.”

Diana Krall and Elvis Costello in 2003

Costello has recorded 30-plus studio albums during a career that has spanned over four decades.  His records have been much more successful in the UK than in the U.S., where he’s had only one top 10 album and only one top 20 single.

Stupid Americans – Elvis is an exceptional songwriter, and his early albums were among the very best of their era.

*     *     *     *     *

Click here to listen to “I’m Not Angry.”  (When someone titles a song “I’m Not Angry,” you can bet that he actually is angry.)

Click on the link below to buy the song from Amazon: