Elvis Costello is the stage name of Declan Patrick MacManus, a singer-songwriter from Paddington, London. Born in 1954, he grows up in a musical family: his father, Ronald “Ross” MacManus, is a trumpeter, vocalist and bandleader, and his mother, Lillian Costello, manages a record store. His family has roots in Merseyside, and he moves to Birkenhead with his mother after his parents separate.

Career beginnings

Costello emerges from London’s pub rock scene in the early 1970s as part of Flip City. He makes his first releases in 1977 on the independent label Stiff, alongside fellow pub-rock figures Nick Lowe and Ian Dury, and becomes associated with punk rock, power pop and new wave. He takes the name Elvis Costello from Elvis Presley, with the stage name suggested by Stiff Records manager Jake Riviera.

Albums and bands

He becomes widely known with his 1977 debut album My Aim Is True, which is regarded as one of the most successful debut albums of all time. He later forms Elvis Costello & The Attractions, whose line-up includes Steve Nieve on keyboards, Pete Thomas on drums and Bruce Thomas on bass. Between 1978 and 1983, the group releases This Year’s Model, Armed Forces, Get Happy!!, Almost Blue, Trust, Imperial Bedroom and Punch the Clock.

From Armed Forces onwards, his music draws on soul, country, 1960s pop and classical music as well as his earlier punk and new wave interests. His work is known for literate, witty songwriting and for moving across many styles, including country, jazz and orchestral music. He releases more than thirty studio albums across his solo work and collaborations with the Attractions, the Imposters and other projects.

Later work and collaborations

After Goodbye Cruel World in 1984, he enters a period of less consistent studio work, though he continues to make varied records. King of America is made with the other Elvis’s band, and Blood and Chocolate, made with The Attractions and producer Nick Lowe, is one of his strongest late-1980s albums. Other releases include the difficult solo albums Spike and Mighty Like a Rose, the string quartet collaboration The Juliet Letters, and the reunion album Brutal Youth.

He also works with a wide range of collaborators, including Burt Bacharach, Paul McCartney, Anne Sofie von Otter, Allen Toussaint, Aimee Mann, Bill Frisell and Brian Eno. In 1998, he and Bacharach release Painted from Memory, and in 2004 he issues the orchestral instrumental work Il Sogno and the collaborative album The Delivery Man.

Other names and projects

Costello uses a number of aliases, including “The Imposter” and “Napoleon Dynamite”. Other groups and collaborations linked with him include The Coward Brothers, Elvis Costello & The Imposters, The New Basement Tapes, Clangwinstello, The MacManus Gang, The Sugarcanes and Rusty. He is also associated with the television series Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..., which begins airing in 2008 and combines interviews, performances and discussions with artists and other figures.

Personal life

He is married to jazz vocalist Diana Krall, and they have twin sons.