Favourite Paul McCartney/Elvis Costello songs

You get to pick four songs.

My Brave Face
You Want Her Too
Veronica
The Lovers That Never Were

 

The Lovers That Never Were
You Want Her Too
Tommy's Coming Home

will have to think about fourth, lots of good choices.

 

My Brave Face
Veronica
That Day is Done
Back on my Feet

Mistress and Maid gets an honorable mention

 

Exactly my votes, but a different honorable mention.

 

My Brave Face
Veronica
You Want Her Too
Tommy's Coming Home

 

Veronica
Mistress & Maid
Lovers That Never Were
Back On My Feet

Honorable Mention: Shallow Grave!

 

Face
Day
Candy
Tommy

They're all very good though.

 

Should have included a Choose All option

 

My Brave Face
So Like Candy
Veronica
That Day Is Done

 

For the record, my picks: You Want Her To, because of its’ duet nature, That Day is Done, because they both recorded stellar versions, My Brave Face and Veronica, strong singles from the respective artists.

Also love So Like Candy, Back on My Feet, the Lovers That Never Were and Tommy’s Coming Home.

 

Written about “a holy fool or hapless vagabond whom people either pity or pass by,” Costello massaged the words to read more like the quick cuts of a movie script, a technique he used to great effect in his own “Watching the Detectives” and others.

 

Veronica
My Brave Face
Pads, Paws and Claws

I like a good deal of these songs, but I especially like the album “Spike”. Many happy memories from that year (1989), and I played the CD a lot.

Honorable mention: not a co-write, but McCartney plays a distinctive bass on “This Town”, also on Spike.

 

I’ll vote for the Leave My Kitten Alone intro to Pads Paws & Claws from the tv appearance at the time.

 

I only need three,My Brave Face,Back On My Feet,Tommy's Coming Home.

 

1). Tommy's Coming Home
1). My Brave Face
3). Veronica
4.) That Day Is Done

 

What an incredibly strong group of songs. I could chose so many, and enjoy all of them, but I went with the following :

My Brave Face
That Day Is Done
So Like Candy
The Lovers That Never Were

 

I chose:
Veronica
So Like Candy
Mistress & Maid
The Lovers That Never Were

It's great seeing a full list of their co-writes all in one place. They really came up with a large, fine group of songs. "Playboy To a Man" is my least favorite (not helped by EC's grating execution on "MLAR"), but I don't think there's a "bad" song in the bunch.

 

I love the rollicking 1988 studio demo of 'Playboy To A Man' with Paul on lead vocals; that would have been a great addition to Paul's 1989 come back tour.

 

My brave face
Veronica
Possibly the only two i know, but both really good songs.
I had never realised mccartney and costello had written so much together.

 

My Brave Face
Veronica
Pads, Paws and Claws
So Like Candy

Based on the vote, I guess I'm weird to have selected "Pads..." Always thought it was an extremely clever little song, though it is off-beat.

Of the other three, all are excellent but "So Like Candy" is far and away my favorite. I think it is a masterpiece, lyrically and musically.

It's got a real "film noir" feel to it, the music reminds me of something Alex North might have written (think "A Streetcar Named Desire"), which I love.

I suspect if it had been produced in another time - late 1950s/early 1960s - it would probably have become a modern "standard" piece and would have been covered by great jazz and pop vocalists like Sinatra etc.

That good.

 

So Like Candy pick of bunch for me. Original demo superb. So sad Paul never did studio version. Missed opportunity.