The Top 20 Elvis Costello Songs of All Time

3. “Radio, Radio”

I can’t really speak to the current status of terrestrial radio because I stopped listening to it about three years ago when I got satellite radio in my new car. It was one those deals where you get it free for the first six months, but I knew about two hours in that I would be purchasing it for the duration. In that two-hour span I heard three or four songs I loved that I never heard in my life on my local channels, so I was quickly sold.

I can’t imagine that it’s gotten miraculously better in the last three years, considering that traditional radio’s decline, foretold so brilliantly by Elvis Costello in “Radio, Radio,” has been in full effect for a long time now. The song hit the nail on the head so hard that it drove that nail right through the homogenizing programming and thinly-veiled censorship that had already become standard practice at the time of the single’s release in 1978.

It was a fascinating act of provocation by Costello to release the song. After all, he had far more to lose than many of the punk bands who were far too controversial and dangerous to ever be embraced by radio anyway. His was a colorful, accessible style that certainly sounded right at home on pop/rock radio, so any sort of backlash against his protestations could have been damaging.

Elvis famously doubled down on his stance by playing the song on Saturday Night Live much to the chagrin of his record company and unsuspecting NBC executives, earning him a ban from the show that wouldn’t be lifted for a decade. His moral compass was deadly accurate though; these moves, far from hurting E.C.’s popularity, only served to prove his integrity and commitment to principle, qualities that have been in evidence ever since.

As always, Costello realized that the best way to make his point was to write an inviting song, making sure that listeners would be enjoying themselves while they got the message. He also unleashed the Attractions with no restrictions, and they delivered a performance of infinite boisterousness. There is a gleefulness to the way the band attacks the song that makes it clear how much they relished taking on the establishment. (We’ll forgive Elvis for the fact that he nicked the song’s ending from Tom Petty’s “Listen To Her Heart,” since Petty came circle and used the concept of “Radio, Radio” for The Last DJ, his own album-length lament for what the airwaves have become.)

Elvis makes sure to convey his deep feeling of disappointment at the medium that once captivated him: “They’re saying things that I can hardly believe, they really think we’re getting out of control.” In the chorus, the viewpoint of the media conglomerates in charge of radio is made to sound almost like fascist propaganda or Big Brother-speak.

Costello also aims his barbs at those who would sit idly by and allow this to happen: “But everybody else is overwhelmed by indifference and the promise of an early bed.” The ultimate goal of the powers that be is to “anaesthetise the way that you feel.” If there was a single word that pushed Elvis to the forefront of his generation of songwriters, it would have to be “anaesthetise.” It’s just brilliant.

The most enduring image of Costello in those early years may be him in that light blue suit on the SNL stage, feet pointed east and west, staring the crowd and camera down as he delivered those defiant lines, “I want to bite the hand that feeds me/I want to bite that hand so badly/I want to make them wish they’d never seen me.” Talent and guts went a long way in his case, and I’m encouraged by the fact that “Radio, Radio” defied the odds and still gets airplay today. The fact that I hear the song often on SiriusXM’s First Wave channel for “classic alternative” after never having heard it once in 30 years coming from the narrowcasters that program my local commercial stations, well, it just proves Elvis’ point all over again.