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Born Declan Patrick MacManus in St. Mary's Hospital in London the son of Lilian Alda and Ross MacManus a bandleader.
After completing secondary school at St Francis Xavier's College, he returned to London where he next formed a band called Flip City.
To support himself, he worked at a variety of office jobs, most notably 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 of the Midland Bank.
Costello's first single on Stiff was "Less Than Zero," released in March 1977. Three months later his debut album, My Aim Is True (1977) was released. It achieved commercial success No. 14 in the UK and went Top 40 in the US.
Costello had been married three times, the first time to Mary Burgoyne in 1971, with whom he has a son.
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. They married in 1986 and split up at the end of 2002.
Costello became engaged to singer Diana Krall in May 2003, and married her at the home of Elton John in December of that year. Krall gave birth to twin sons, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan Jones in December 2006 in New York City.
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