Elvis Costello’s debut LP My Aim Is True will turn 50 next year, but it’s such a landmark event that he’s not waiting to celebrate. He’s instead dropping a massive, five-disc box set of music from this era on Oct. 2 that features 104 tracks in total,
52 of them previously unreleased. The package is called My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition), and he’s shared four early renditions of “Watching the Detectives” today to give fans a little taste of what’s to come when the packages hit record stores shelves.
“When first proposed, I thought the whole idea of celebrating a 50th Anniversary of My Aim Is True was preposterous,” Costello writes in the liner notes. “It made my teeth itch. It couldn’t just be set up like a venerable object in a glass case.”
The first disc is a remastered version of the original album that fuses together the track listings from the U.K. and U.S. releases. “Last night I listened to this wonderfully wonky record in its entirety for the first time in about 45 years,” My Aim Is True producer Nick Lowe writes in the notes. “[It was a] priceless opportunity to observe at close range the extraordinary work of one of the foremost composers of popular song of this or any other era.”
The set continues with a collection of 17 recordings from 1975 and 1976 that pre-date the My Aim Is True sessions. He calls this one The Blue Print. They include homemade bedroom tapes, 13 recordings from a 1976 session at the Hope & Anchor studio, and a newly discovered reel of songs that Costello recorded that year, including an early rendition of “Radio Radio” known as “Radio Soul.”
Disc three is titled The Stranger in the House. It spotlights all of the surviving demos and outtakes from My Aim Is True. The four disc, Becoming the Attractions, consists of live material from his earliest gigs with the Attractions. And the set wraps up with Covered in Clover, an unreleased reunion show that Costello staged in 2007 with the band Clover, who backed him in the studio on My Aim Is True, before some of them went on to form Huey Lewis and the News.
“Making my first record seemed like the beginning of something that I’d imagined for a long time, before I had any sense of a potential audience, let alone the expectation and the assumptions of others about songs written and performed in mere minutes,” Costello writes in the notes. “Nevertheless, I raise a chaste glass to My Aim Is True and all who sail in her.”
Costello and the Imposters kick off the next leg of their ongoing tour Sept. 10 in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It wraps up Sept, 24 in Victoria, Canada.
My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition) Box Set Track List
CD1: My Aim Is True
1. “Welcome to the Working Week” – 2026 Remaster
2. “Miracle Man” – 2026 Remaster
3. “No Dancing” – 2026 Remaster
4.” Blame It on Cain” – 2026 Remaster
5. “Alison” – 2026 Remaster
6. “Sneaky Feelings” – 2026 Remaster
7. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” – 2026 Remaster
8. “Less Than Zero” – 2026 Remaster
9. “Mystery Dance” – 2026 Remaster
10. “Pay It Back” – 2026 Remaster
11. “I’m Not Angry” – 2026 Remaster
12. “Waiting for the End of the World” – 2026 Remaster
13. “Watching the Detectives” – Single Version
CD2: The Blue Print
1. “I Turn Around” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
2. “Losing You” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
3. “Leverman” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
4. “Citizen Junction” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
5. I Hear a Melody” – Pathway Studios
6. “Poison Moon” – Bedroom Recording
7. “Wave a White Flag” – Bedroom Recording
8. “Mercury Wings” – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
9. “Jump Up” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
10. “No Star” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
11. “Walk On” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
12. “Radio Soul” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
13. “Clean Money” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
14. “Don’t Put a Levy on My Love” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
15. “Play It Safe” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
16. “Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
17. “I Can’t Turn It Off” – Hope & Anchor Studio
CD3: The Stranger in the House
1. “Radio Sweetheart” – My Aim Is True Outtake
2. “Cheap Reward” – Bedroom Recording
3. “Mystery Dance” – Bedroom Recording
4. “Stranger in the House” – My Aim Is True Outtake
5. “Running Out of Angels” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
6. “Just Like a Jukebox” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
7. “I Don’t Want to Go Home” – Pathway Studios
8. “Blame It on Cain” – Bedroom Recording
9. “Blue Minute” – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
10. “Pay It Back” – Bedroom Recording **
11. “Exiles Road” – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
12. “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door” – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
13. “Sweet Revival” – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
14. “Pay It Back” – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
15. “Imagination (Is a Powerful Deceiver)” – Flip City – Hope & Anchor Studio**
16. “Living in Paradise” – Hope & Anchor Studio**
17. “Welcome to the Working Week” – Pathway Studios
18. “Miracle Man” – Bedroom Recording**
19. “Miracle Man” – Pathway Studios
20. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
21. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” – Pathway Studios
22. “Waiting for the End of the World” – Pathway Studios
23. “Living in Paradise” – My Aim Is True Outtake
24. “Call on Me” – Pathway Studios
25. “Watching the Detectives” – Pathway Studios Trio Version**
26. “No Action” – Pathway Studios Trio Version
27. “Poison Moon” – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
28. “Stranger in the House” – Ms. Dore’s Tape**
CD4: Becoming The Attractions
1. “Alison” – What’s On Granada Reports
2. “Introduction By Dave Robinson” – Live, The Nashville Room
3. “Mystery Dance” – Live, The Nashville Room
4. “Pay It Back” – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
5. “Radio Sweetheart” – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
6. “Sneaky Feelings” – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
7. “Crawling to the U.S.A.” – Soundcheck, The Nashville Room
8. “Lip Service” – Pathway Studios**
9. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes”- with Introduction Top Of The Pops**
10. “Interview No. 1” – Good Afternoon with Mavis Nicholson
11. Watching the Detectives” – Good Afternoon Broadcast**
12. “Interview No. 2” – Good Afternoon with Mavis Nicholson
13. “Hoover Factory” – Good Afternoon Rehearsal**
14. “I Just Don’t Know What to Do With Myself” – Live Stiffs, University of East Anglia, Norwich, U.K.
15. “Whole Wide World” – Live Stiffs, University Of Leicester, Leicester, U.K.**
16. “KSAN Intro” – Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA
17. “Pump It Up” – Old Waldorf, San Francisco, CA**
18. “Lip Service” – Unknown Field Recording**
19. “Mystery Dance” – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
20. Blame It on Cain – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
21. “Less Than Zero (Dallas Version)” – Warner Theater, Washington D.C.
22. “Waiting for the End of the World” – The Agora Ballroom, Cleveland, OH**
23. “Miracle Man” – Warner Theater, Washington D.C.
24. “Watching the Detectives” – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
25. “I’m Not Angry” – Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, CA**
CD5: Covered In Clover
1. “Welcome to the Working Week” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
2. “Miracle Man” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
3. “No Dancing” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
4. Intro to “Blame It on Cain” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
5. “Blame It on Cain” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
6. “Alison” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
7. Intro to “Sneaky Feelings” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
8. “Sneaky Feelings” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
9. Intro to “Red Shoes” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
10. “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
11. “Less Than Zero” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
12. “Mystery Dance” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
13. “Pay It Back” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
14. “I’m Not Angry” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
15. “Waiting for the End of the World / Gloria” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
16. “Watching the Detectives” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
17. “Mr. Moon” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
18. Intro to the Love Trilogy (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
19. “Love Has No Pride” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
20. “Love Is Gone” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
21. “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (Live – Great American Music Hall, San Francisco, CA – Nov. 8, 2007)**
** Denotes previously unreleased
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