I started this one off and soon discovered that, in the fullness of time, it actually was released as a single.
mp3: The Costello Show – Brilliant Mistake
Brilliant Mistake is the opening song on the 1986 album King of America, which is credited to The Costello Show. Recording had taken place the previous year at various studios in Los Angeles, California. The original idea had been for half the album to be performed by a large group of American session musicians dubbed The Confederates, who had been selected by producer T Bone Burnett with some drawn from a band that had backed Elvis Presley in the 1970s, with the other half being performed by Elvis Costello‘s regular backing band of the time, The Attractions.
In the end, The Attractions appeared on just one of the album’s 15 final tracks. Also worth mentioning that the writing credits of the original songs were attributed to Declan Patrick Aloysius MacManus (the singer’s real name), and the performances to The Little Hands of Concrete, a name given to him in fun by Nick Lowe as a result of Costello’s tendency to frequently break guitar strings.
The odd number can partly be explained by the fact that the bosses at Columbia Records, on hearing the proposed album, considered none of the songs as being obvious singles, which led to the late addition of a cover version – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood, originally recorded in 1964 by Nina Simone but better known as a later Top-10 hit for The Animals a year later.
The single entered the charts at #39 in February 1986, peaking eventually at #33. The album followed a month later, entering at #11, and going on to spend just seven weeks in the Top 75. It was an album not loved by the bosses, and judging by sales, not too loved by the fan base.
And yet, many critics on both sides of the Atlantic raved about it, although there were a number who panned it. The retrospective take on things is quite similar, with loads of praise, with some pointing out that it really marked where Costello really began the journey of looking to experiment with different styles, sounds and genres that would increasingly define his later career, but others really not liking it – one later review to coincide with a 2005 reissue said it was a mess, containing eight of Costello’s “meatiest songs” and seven others that ranges from “forced whimsy” to “self-parody”.
Me? I fell for it immediately. Not all the songs are ‘classics’, but there were way more hits than misses. Which is why I was bemused that the label bosses didn’t see fit to lift a second 45 to help boost sales during the spring/summer months. Especially the album opener….but then again, it seemed to be the sort of clever song that British and European fans would fully appreciate but American fans night feel bordered on being sacrilegious.
Time has proven to be very kind to Brilliant Mistake, and in 2005 it was given a very belated release as a single to help promote the fact that King of America had been reissued in a remastered form, along with a bonus disc with ten additional tracks. Too little, too late in my book. It should have been all over radios throughout the summer of ’86.
THE NEW VINYL VILLAIN 
Yep, I thought it was a good album too, and a great opening track. Some classic Costello lines: “She said that she was working for the ABC News/ It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use…”
Certainly Brilliant Mistake is one of the highlights of EC’s mid 80s wanderings . It’s full of humor and irony and a bit of sidestepped vitriol. For the last 10 years Brilliant Mistake has been a song that enters my mind when of our last 3 US elections.
An Echorich sighting! Makes my day. A terrific opener to a terrific album.
Wasn’t this and Blood and Chocolate both released in the same year ? Up to this point I only really liked EC singles but thought both these 2 LPs were fabulous
I’ve never understood the lack of love for this album. The Confederates were a great live band too.
Echoing others. One of my favourite EC LPs with an opening song so… erm… brilliantly written, performed and produced. I grew up loving his Basher-produced work but somehow T-Bone Burnett got something more out of Declan. I also loved the Attractions but seeing him play with the Confederates was a real eye-opener. I agree Brilliant Mistake woulda been a hit!
Brilliant Mistake was the highlight of what I still think of as Elvis’s first bad album. (I’m not counting Almost Blue because it was a sort of genre exercise, although I one I didn’t especially enjoy.) Even so, the rhymes are a little forced. There are some other moments that are okay, and it was interesting to see all the star musicians on the record (David Hidalgo! Ray Brown!), but I was totally underwhelmed. It was reassuring when Blood & Chocolate came out 6 months later, which again was loaded with great songs. Little did I know that one would be the last great EC & the Attractions record.
Hey fiktiv: I guess you aren’t including Goodbye Cruel World either. I believe we may have had this argument before. Ha!
We did, Brian, and I know the consensus is that GCW is the dud Attractions album, but I never understood why. I always liked that one.
Fiktiv, I have come around to at least admit there are the bones of some good songs. The demos that have popped up on reissues, Roy Orbison’s cover of the Comedians as well as Costello’s duo with Bill Frisell doing Love Field at Meltdown in ’95 are a few examples to prove that. Maybe it’s going to the well with Langer and Winstanley one more time than he should have that ruins GCW for me. Bottom line is we both love EC and the Attractions. Looking forward to see what you have for us Friday on these pages.
I will always hold this and Blood & Chocolate in high regard as these were the contemporary EC releases when my record buying habit kicked in, mid-teens. And Brilliant Mistake is a wonderful song that yes, should have been a single back in the day.
Above all else though, a real joy to hear from Echorich. So good to see your words, I hope all is well with you.
I get back from holiday and one of the first things I see on the blog is a comment from Echorich. As with Brian, it made my day!
So good to hear from you, my friend. Hope all is well with you and your loved ones. There’s always a place for you here on TVV should you ever get the urge to start writing again. 🙂
Loved the album from the day I got it, the day it got released. It was something of a shock to the system after GCW. It was arguably, though, the moment EC stopped being a really British focused artist. Almost Blue felt like a British take on C&W.
‘with some pointing out that it really marked where Costello really began the journey of looking to experiment with different styles, sounds and genres that would increasingly define his later career’
They must have missed Get Happy and Almost Blue! Or even Armed Forces…