Pump It Up (Elvis Costello song)

Infobox Single
Name = Pump It Up


Cover size = 150
Artist = Elvis Costello
from Album = This Year's Model
Released = 1978
Format =
Recorded =
Genre = New Wave
Length = 3:17
Label =
Writer =
Producer =
Certification =
Chart position = * #24 (UK)
Last single = "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea"
(1978)
This single = "Pump It Up"
(1978)
Next single = "Radio Radio"
(1978)

"Pump it Up" is a song by Elvis Costello. It originally appeared on Costello's second album "This Year's Model" which was the first he recorded with The Attractions. Costello frequently uses double entendres in his songs and "Pump It Up" is a good example of this, with the lyric "Pump it up" being used to mean both turning up the volume on the music as well as masturbation. The story in the song is about the narrator's sexual frustration at the hands of a femme fatale who's described in the lyrics as being "a bad girl" and "like a narcotic."

"Pump it Up" was written in reaction to the excesses of the Stiffs Live Tour. [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/the-spirit-of-stiff-records-lives-on-773546.html]

This song is featured in Rock Band 2.

Cover versions

It has been covered by various artists, including Code Anchor, Exodus, Kills for Thrills, Mudhoney, Trixter, Buckcherry, Automatic, Maldroid, and The Wildhearts. Lifehouse has covered the song at various concert venues. The guitar riff was sampled in Rogue Traders' 2005 single "Voodoo Child."

References