The Very Thought Of You

From The Elvis Costello Wiki
Jump to navigationJump to search
The printable version is no longer supported and may have rendering errors. Please update your browser bookmarks and please use the default browser print function instead.

The very thought of you
And I forget to do
The little ordinary things
That everyone ought to do

I'm living in a kind of daydream
I'm happy as a king
And foolish though it may seem
To me, that's everything

The mere idea of you
The longing here for you
You'll never know how slow the moments go
Till I'm near to you

I see your face in every flower
Your eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you
My love

The mere idea of you
The longing here for you
You'll never know how slow the moments go
Till I'm near to you

I see your face in every flower
Your eyes in stars above
It's just the thought of you
The very thought of you
My love

The Very Thought Of You
Written byRay Noble
Performed byElvis Costello
Produced byElvis Costello & Kevin Killen
MusiciansElvis Costello - vocals
Jim Keltner - drums
Jerry Scheff - bass
Larry Knechtel - piano, Wurlitzer electric piano
Marc Ribot - Spanish guitar, Eb horn
James Burton - electric guitar
Recorded1990, Blue Wave Studios, Barbados
Vocal backgrounds added at Eden Studios, London
ReleasedMay 9, 1995
AlbumsKojak Variety, 1995
Length3:37

First known performance:
June 6, 1986, London, England
Last known performance:
May 17, 1995, London, England
     (23 known performances)


Eye.jpg
“"Our treatment is very different from Nat 'King' Cole's. It was the latter part of the first week of recording and we were getting quite relaxed. It's kind of like James Brown's version of "I Loves You Porgy" — he doesn't really sing anything like the tune. We abandoned the sophisticated substitutions and played it like two-chord R&B.” — Elvis writing in Q Magazine, June 1995.

Alternate versions

The Very Thought Of You (Live 1986)
Performed byChet Baker with Elvis Costello
MusiciansElvis Costello - vocal
Chet Baker - trumpet
Michel Graillier - piano
Riccardo Del Fra - bass
RecordedJune 6, 1986, London, England
Released1986
VideosChet Baker: Live At Ronnie Scott's, 2001 (DVD)

The Very Thought Of You (Piano Jazz version)
Performed byElvis Costello & Marian McPartland
Produced byShari Hutchinson
MusiciansElvis Costello - vocal
Marian McPartland - piano
Gary Mazzaroppi - bass
RecordedMay 3, 2003, Manhattan Studio, New York
ReleasedJuly 12, 2005
AlbumsPiano Jazz: Costello/McPartland
Length3:49
Kojak VarietyKV album cover large.jpg

Chet Baker: Live At Ronnie Scott'sChet Baker Live At Ronnie Scott's DVD cover.jpg

Piano Jazz: Costello/McPartlandPiano Jazz.jpg


Recordings by other artists

 Artist  Year  Release  Links
Nat 'King' Cole  1958 The Very Thought Of You AllMusic
Frank Sinatra  1962 Sinatra Sings Great Songs From Great Britain Wikipedia
Tony Bennett  1971 The Very Thought Of You Discogs


Internal links

External links