In The Beautiful South, Heaton shared the lead singer's role with Hemingway and female singer Briana Corrigan to create a trio of lead vocalists. This set-up helped to characterise the bittersweet kitchen sink dramas played out in Heaton's often-barbed songs.
The band's music might sound like bubbly, catchy, lightweight pop but Heaton's sour, savage and amusing worldview on everything and anything (alcoholism, religion, sex, politics and, mostly, the down side of relationships) is always lurking beneath the surface of the quirky melodies. The tastes and smells of the local pub are never far away either, with the band gaining a reputation for boozing. The band's first album was Welcome to the Beautiful South (1989) and spawned the hits Song For Whoever and You Keep It All In. The release of 1990's Choke album saw the band claim its only Number 1 hit to date, A Little Time. 0898 followed in 1992, with hits including Old Red Eyes Is Back.
In 1994, after Corrigan quit the band when she saw Paul's lyrics for the forthcoming album Miaow, St Helens supermarket shelf-stacker, Jacqui Abbott, was brought on board to fill in. Heaton had heard her sing at an after show party in St Helens and remembered her vocal talents.
Jacqui's first album with the band was Miaow in 1994. Hits included Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud) and a cover of Fred Neil's Everybody's Talking, previously popularised by Harry Nilsson. The end of that year saw the release of Carry on up the Charts, a "best of" compilation consisting of the singles to date plus new track One Last Love Song. The album was massively successful and it is said that 1 in 7 homes in the UK owns a copy.
Blue Is the Colour (1996), Quench (1998) and Painting It Red (2000) followed with varying success. Jacqui also quit the band in 2000. After a second Greatest Hits album Solid Bronze in 2001, they recorded Gaze in 2003 with yet another female vocalist, Alison 'Lady' Wheeler. Wheeler was still in place for 2004's Golddiggas, Headnodders and Pholk Songs, an album of unusually arranged cover versions including Livin' Thing, You're The One That I Want, Don't Fear The Reaper and I'm Stone In Love With You. In 2006 the band released their tenth studio album, Superbi.
The band broke up in January 2007, releasing the statement: "The Beautiful South have split up due to musical similarities. The band would like to thank everyone for their 19 wonderful years in music."
Former members of the group have since played Beautiful South songs together as 'New Beautiful South' and more recently 'The South'.
In 2007, Mercury Records released Soup: The Best of The Housemartins and The Beautiful South, a compilation album containing 7 hit singles by The Housemartins ("The Housemartins Condensed") and 15 tracks The Beautiful South ("Cream of The Beautiful South").
Song For Whoever
The Beautiful South Lyrics
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I love you in the songs, I write and sing
Love you because, you put me in my rightful place
And I love the PRS cheques, that you bring
Cheap, never cheap
I'll sing you songs till you're asleep
And write it all down, down, down, down
Oh Shirley, oh Deborah, oh Julie, oh Jane
I wrote so many songs about you
I forget your name, I forget your name
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I forget your name
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I forget your name
I love your from the bottom of my pencil case
I love the way you never ask me why
I love to write about each wrinkle on your face
And I love you 'till my fountain pen runs dry
Deep so deep, the number one I hope to reap
Depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, lovey cry, cry, cry, cry
Oh Cathy, oh Alison, oh Phillipa, oh Sue
You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you
I wrote this song for you
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I wrote this song for you
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
Oh Cathy, oh Alison, oh Phillipa, oh Sue
You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you
I wrote this song for you
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
I wrote this song for you
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
For you, for you
I wrote this song for you
I wrote this song for you
The Beautiful South's "Song For Whoever" is a satirical take on songwriting that highlights the often-vapid nature of pop music's lyrics-writing. The song is essentially a love song directed at the women who have inspired the band's music, but it's also a nod towards the music industry's commercialization of relationships.
The lyrics are built around a list of names, those of women who have presumably been in relationships with the band members, or who have influenced their music in some way. The band describes their love for these women using cliched phrases that are commonly found in pop music. For example, "I love you from the bottom of my pencil case" is a nod to the schoolgirl crush trope that is often found in love songs.
The song is full of contradictions and playful irony. While the band members express their love for these women's personalities, they also confess to forgetting their names, highlighting how arbitrary and interchangeable these "muses" are. The final lines of the song reveal the true focus of the song, which isn't a celebration of the women who inspired it but rather the profit the band members can make by singing about them.
Line by Line Meaning
I love you from the bottom, of my pencil case
I love you deeply and full-heartedly, just like how a person treasures the contents of their pencil case.
I love you in the songs, I write and sing
I express my love through the music I create and perform.
Love you because, you put me in my rightful place
I love you for supporting me and helping me find my true calling.
And I love the PRS cheques, that you bring
I am also grateful for the financial rewards that come with your support.
Cheap, never cheap
The love I have for you is invaluable and cannot be bought with money.
I'll sing you songs till you're asleep
I will keep expressing my love for you through music.
When you've gone upstairs I'll creep
I will find moments to work on my music even when you're not around.
And write it all down, down, down, down
I pour all my emotions and thoughts into the music I write.
Oh Shirley, oh Deborah, oh Julie, oh Jane
I wrote many songs for different women, but I sometimes forget their names.
I wrote so many songs about you
I dedicate my music to the women who inspired me to create it.
Jennifer, Alison, Phillipa, Sue, Deborah, Annabel, too
These are some of the names of the women in my songs.
I love your from the bottom of my pencil case
My love for you runs deep and true, as deep as the contents of a pencil case.
I love the way you never ask me why
I appreciate how you accept my music and my love without questioning it.
I love to write about each wrinkle on your face
I find beauty in every detail of your being, even the lines on your face that signify aging.
And I love you 'till my fountain pen runs dry
My love for you is limitless and will never run out, just like how a fountain pen never dries up completely.
Deep so deep, the number one I hope to reap
My love for you runs so deep that I hope it brings me success in the music industry.
Depends upon the tears you weep, so cry, lovey cry, cry, cry, cry
The emotional depth of my music depends on the emotions you invoke in me, so I encourage you to express your true feelings.
You made me so much money, I wrote this song for you
I am grateful for the financial rewards that come with your support and dedicate this song to you in recognition.
For you, for you
Everything I create is for you, to express my love and gratitude.
I wrote this song for you
This song is dedicated to you, the women who have inspired me to create music.
Lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group
Written by: DAVE ROTHERAY, PAUL HEATON
Lyrics Licensed & Provided by LyricFind