Girls Talk (Elvis Costello song)

"Girls Talk" is an Elvis Costello song. Originally written for Costello's 1979 album Get Happy!!, the song was later rendered by Dave Edmunds. Edmunds' version peaked at #4 on the UK Singles Chart.

Background

As with many of Costello's previous songs, it is tricky to ascertain a particular meaning, as his records are replete with such double entendres as "though you may not be an old-fashioned girl, you're still going to get dated".^[1] However, in the liner notes for the 2002 Rhino reissue of Get Happy!!, Costello stated that the record regarded women's gossip, and that it had been donated to Dave Edmunds "in a moment of drunken bravado" after a drunken argument with Stephen Stills and Bonnie Bramlett in a Columbus, Ohio, Holiday Inn hotel bar, during which he referred to James Brown as a "jive-arsed nigger," then upped the ante by pronouncing Ray Charles a "blind, ignorant nigger". Although he subsequently apologized for his remarks, he did so in a New York City press conference without alerting Edmunds, who subsequently went ahead with the recording.^[2]

Released in June 1979, Edmunds' version charted at #4 on the UK Singles Chart, spending 11 weeks on the chart. It was his final top ten hit in that country,^[3] and began his album Repeat When Necessary. Costello's version, however, did see the light of day when released as the B-side of his single I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down,^[4] and was a fixture of the set lists for his tours for some time after it was recorded.^[5]

Critical reception

Stewart Mason of AllMusic gave the song a positive review, complimenting the tone of "suppressed menace", and saying that "it features some of his sharpest lyrics of the era".^[5] In addition, Debra Rae Cohen of Rolling Stone said that although Edmunds' version was "cocky [and] rowdy", "Costello restores the tune's paranoiac underpinnings with the nervous quaver of his voice and soft keyboard parts that echo like footfalls".^[6]

References