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Declan Patrick MacManus (born 25 August 1954), known professionally as Elvis Costello, is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, author and television presenter. Per Rolling Stone, Costello "reinvigorated the literate, lyrical traditions of Bob Dylan and Van Morrison with the raw energy and sass that were principal ethics of punk", noting the "construction of his songs, which set densely layered wordplay in an ever-expanding repertoire of styles." His first album, My Aim Is True (1977), is widely regarded as one of the best debuts in popular music history. It spawned no hit singles, but contains some of Costello's best-known songs, including the ballad "Alison". Costello's next two albums, This Year's Model (1978) and Armed Forces (1979), recorded with his backing band the Attractions, helped define the new wave genre. From late 1977 through early 1980, each of the eight singles he released reached the UK Top 30. His biggest hit single, "Oliver's Army" (1979) sold more than 400,000 copies in Britain. He has had more modest commercial success in the US, but has earned much critical praise. From 1977 through the early 2000s, Costello's albums regularly ranked high on the Village Voice Pazz & Jop critics' poll, with This Year's Model and Imperial Bedroom (1982) voted the best album of their respective years. His biggest US hit single, "Veronica" (1989), reached number 19 on the Billboard Hot 100. Born into a musical family, Costello was raised with knowledge and appreciation of a wide range of musical styles and an insider's view of the music business. His opportunity to begin a professional career as a musician coincided with the rise of punk rock in England. The primitivism brought into fashion by punk led Costello to disguise his musical savvy at the beginning of his career, but his stylistic range has come to encompass R&B, country, jazz, baroque pop, Tin Pan Alley and classical music. He has released album-length collaborations with the classical ensemble The Brodsky Quartet, the New Orleans R&B songwriter and producer Allen Toussaint and the hip-hop group The Roots. Costello has written more than a dozen songs with Paul McCartney and had a long-running songwriting partnership with Burt Bacharach. Costello has had hits with covers of songs, including Sam & Dave's "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down", Jerry Chesnut's "Good Year for the Roses" and Charles Aznavour's "She". One of the songs he is best known for, "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding", was written by Nick Lowe and recorded by Lowe's group Brinsley Schwarz in 1974, but remained obscure until Costello released his version in 1979. Costello's own songs have been recorded by artists including Linda Ronstadt, George Jones, Dave Edmunds, Chet Baker and Alison Krauss. Costello has won two Grammy awards, two Ivor Novello Awards awards, four Edison awards, an MTV Video Music Award, a BAFTA award, an ASCAP Founders award and a Gemini award. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2016, he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. From 2008 to 2010, he hosted a television show, Spectacle: Elvis Costello with..., on which he interviewed other musicians. In 2015, he published a well-received memoir, Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink. Early life Elvis Costello was born Declan Patrick MacManus, on 25 August 1954, at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington, West London, the only child of a record shop worker and a jazz musician. Both parents were from the Liverpool area and had moved to London together a few years earlier. Costello's father was Catholic and of Irish descent, but his mother is neither. Family background Costello's mother, Lillian MacManus (née Ablett, 1927–2021), was born and raised in Toxteth, Liverpool, the daughter of a gas-main layer and a mother who became increasingly disabled by rheumatoid arthritis as Lillian grew up. Responsible for caring for her younger brother and sick mother, Lillian left school at 13 and took the first of a series of jobs at music stores. After moving to London with her future husband Ross in 1951, she took a job in the record department in Selfridges department store and continued selling records through the 1960s. Even after she no longer worked selling records, Lillian maintained a keen interest in a wide variety of music, including the popular music of the day. Costello's father, Ross MacManus (1927–2011), was a professional trumpet player and singer, born and raised in Birkenhead, across the River Mersey from Liverpool. He began his career in music in the late 1940s, playing trumpet in bebop bands in Birkenhead and Liverpool. He segued to playing trumpet and singing in modern jazz bands after moving to London in 1951. By 1954, he was sufficiently well known for his son's birth to be announced in the New Musical Express. From 1955 to 1968, he was a featured singer in Joe Loss Orchestra, one of Britain's most popular big bands. Ross had a solo cabaret act from 1969 through the 1990s, playing workingmen's social clubs in the North of England, Scotland, and Wales. Ross recorded for small record labels under a variety of aliases, including Day Costello – Costello being Ross's paternal grandmother's maiden name. He also recorded advertising jingles. In 1973, he sang the "Secret Lemonade Drinker" jingle featured in a series of popular and long-running advertisements for R. Whites. Ross's father, Patrick Matthew McManus, known as Pat, was also a professional musician. Pat was raised in an orphanage from age eight, where he learned to play trumpet. He later played trumpet as an army bandsman, a ship's musician for the White Star Line, and an orchestra musician in music halls and in theaters showing silent films. Costello has said that Pat, being the first in the family to make a career in music, is the reason he himself is a musician. Childhood and early musical influences Costello spent most of his childhood in Twickenham, in west London, before moving to Liverpool with his mother in 1970. Costello was raised Roman Catholic and served as an altar boy until he was 14. Costello's parents had separated by the time Costello was ten years old, after which he was raised by his mother. Ross continued to be a significant presence in Costello's life and the two remained close until Ross's death in 2011. Costello has said that a childhood spent watching his father work gave him an innate sense of how to be a musician but also an understanding that a career in music was a job like any other, requiring discipline and hard work. Costello's parents never insisted he take music lessons or otherwise pushed him to follow in the family business. Instead, they raised him in a home filled with music, encouraged his musical curiosity, and supported his efforts to find his own way toward a career in music. Lillian told journalists that she knew before he was born he would have a career in music and that she listened .... Discover the Declan Jobs popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Declan Jobs books.