“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” (Elvis Costello)

Today’s song with the word angel in the title song of the day is Elvis Costello’s classic “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes.” This tune was a standout track on Mr. Costello’s 1977 debut album, My Aim is True, of which all the songs are terrific. My Aim is True is one of the best debut albums in modern music history, a slab of wax that established Mr. Costello as a major player from the first track of side one through the last track on the flip side.

“(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” was released as the third single from the album in the UK but didn’t go anywhere, for whatever reason. It was not released as a single in the U.S. It should have been.

The song deals with “romantic disappointment,” as some might say. In other words, the guy gets jilted. It’s as catchy as anything Elvis ever wrote and has some remarkable lines, including my favorite:

Oh, I said, ‘I’m so happy I could die’
She said, ‘Drop dead’ then left with another guy

Be careful what you wish for, I suppose.

Then there’s the first (and last) few lines of the verse, which are classic:

Oh, I used to be disgusted
But now I try to be amused
But since their wings have got rusted
You know, the angels wanna wear my red shoes

Elvis recalled how quickly the song came to him, which is often how inspiration works:

“I wrote it in 10 minutes on a train out of Liverpool — the whole song in one gulp. … And then there was the whole comedic thing of getting it down. Nowadays you can demo things on your phone. I had to block it out in my mind. Then I had to get off the train, get to my mother’s house, grab an old guitar I had there and play the song until I imprinted it in my memory. I had no tape recorder. I had no way other than repetition to drill it into my head so I wouldn’t lose it.”

As I said, My Aim is True is one of the most notable debut albums from a new artist in my lifetime. Just look at all the songs that became classic songs on that album: “Welcome to the Working Week,” “Alison,” “Less Than Zero,” “Mystery Dance,” “Watching the Detectives,” and this one. It’s almost like a greatest hits album, but it was his very first release. It was good enough to get inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2007 and is often named as one of the best albums of the 1970s, even though it only reached #32 on the Billboard Top LP and Tape chart at the time.

Back in 2011, Mr. Costello was a guest on Sesame Street and he sang a version of this song with Elmo, titled “(A Monster Went and Ate) My Red 2.” The monster in question, of course, was Cookie Monster. It is a charming performance and Elvis proves himself sympatico with the younger set. It’s fun to see such a vicious song as this turned into a cute little tune for the kiddos. Plus, Mr. Costello kind of looks like a Muppet, doesn’t he?