When I interviewed Elvis Costello, he had this to say about his song “Everyday I Write The Book” -
I wrote it just for a joke. But that’s often the way to write a hit record (laughs). We had a group on the road with us that was trying to write these very self-conscious pop jangly kind of songs and that was their trip. So I thought I’d tease them by writing something that was like what they did, only sort of better than them. I wrote it in ten minutes. It’s [producer] Clive Langer that took it more seriously and heard that it could be a contemporary pop record. We did this whole kind of modern R & B arrangement. That little interlocking guitar pattern and stop time thing had a vague relationship to “Sexual Healing,” which was popular at the time. We were just copying that kind of feel. Ours doesn’t groove as hard. But it wasn’t written to be played like that. It was written to be played like “From Head to Toe” by The Escorts. I was always attracted to that sort of innocent Merseybeat sound. Songs like “Away From You” by Gerry & The Pacemakers. There’s a harmonic disposition in Liverpool, I don’t know where it comes from, but it’s definitely there. It’s not just The Beatles. It’s everybody else. There’s a sudden shift to the minor that’s unexpected. It’s like sped-up doo-wop or something. It’s something to do with being a port town.