Pump It Up (Elvis Costello song)

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"Pump It Up"
Single by Elvis Costello
from the album This Year's Model
Released	April 28, 1978
Genre	New Wave, Power pop
Length	3:17
Label	Radar
Writer(s)	Elvis Costello
Producer	Nick Lowe
Elvis Costello singles chronology
"(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" (1978) "Pump It Up" (1978) "Radio Radio" (1978)

"Pump It Up" is a punk rock song by Elvis Costello. It originally appeared on Costello's second album This Year's Model, which was the first he recorded with the backing group The Attractions.

Lyrics

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. ^[1]

Cover versions

It has been covered by various artists, including The Hot Rats, Code Anchor, Exodus, Kills for Thrills, Mudhoney, Trixter, Buckcherry, Elastic No-No Band, Automatic, Danko Jones, Maldroid, Status Quo, The Wildhearts, Checkerboard Floors, Richard Madeley, and Starpool. Lifehouse has covered the song at various concert venues. The guitar riff was sampled in Rogue Traders' 2005 single "Voodoo Child".

In popular culture

• The song was featured on the first episode of Never Mind the Buzzcocks in 1996 during the Indecipherable Lyrics round.
• The Beastie Boys sampled "Pump It Up" in their song "Egg Man" on the Paul's Boutique album. Costello later performed "Radio Radio" on Saturday Night Live in 1999 with the Beastie Boys as his backing band.
• The song is playable in the music video game Rock Band 2.
• The song was featured in Malcolm in the Middle episode, "Emancipation".*
• The song is also featured in the movie 200 Cigarettes in the bar scene.

References

v t e Elvis Costello The Imposters: Steve Nieve Pete Thomas Davey Faragher The Attractions: Steve Nieve Bruce Thomas Pete Thomas Studio albums My Aim Is True This Year's Model Armed Forces Get Happy!! Trust Almost Blue Imperial Bedroom Punch the Clock Goodbye Cruel World King of America Blood & Chocolate Spike Mighty Like a Rose Brutal Youth Kojak Variety All This Useless Beauty When I Was Cruel North The Delivery Man Momofuku Secret, Profane & Sugarcane National Ransom Live albums Live at the El Mocambo Deep Dead Blue with Bill Frisell Costello & Nieve My Flame Burns Blue with Metropole Orkest Live at Hollywood High Collaborations The Juliet Letters with The Brodsky Quartet Painted from Memory with Burt Bacharach For the Stars with Anne Sofie von Otter The River in Reverse with Allen Toussaint Singles "Less Than Zero" "Alison" "Red Shoes" "Watching the Detectives" "(I Don't Want to Go to) Chelsea" "Pump It Up" "Radio Radio" "Oliver's Army" "Accidents Will Happen" "I Can't Stand Up for Falling Down" "High Fidelity" "New Amsterdam" "Clubland" "From a Whisper to a Scream" "Watch Your Step" "A Good Year for the Roses" "Sweet Dreams" "I'm Your Toy" "You Little Fool" "Man Out of Time" "From Head to Toe" "Party Party" "Pills and Soap" (as The Imposter) "Everyday I Write the Book" "Let Them All Talk" "Peace in Our Time" (as The Imposter) "I Wanna Be Loved" / "Turning the Town Red" "The Only Flame in Town" "Green Shirt" "The People's Limousine" (as The Coward Brothers) "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" "Seven-Day Weekend" with Jimmy Cliff "Lovable" "Tokyo Storm Warning" "I Want You" "Blue Chair" "A Town Called Big Nothing" (as The MacManus Gang) "Veronica" "Baby Plays Around" "...This Town..." "The Other Side of Summer" "So Like Candy" "Jacksons, Monk & Rowe" with The Brodsky Quartet "Sulky Girl" "13 Steps Lead Down" "You Tripped at Every Step" "London's Brilliant Parade" "It's Time" "Little Atoms" "The Other End of the Telescope" "Distorted Angel" "All This Useless Beauty" "You Bowed Down" "Toledo" with Burt Bacharach "She" "Tear Off Your Own Head (It's a Doll Revolution)" "45" "Still" "Monkey to Man" "She's Pulling Out the Pin" "Brilliant Mistake" "Who Are These People?" with Burt Bacharach "Bedlam" "Complicated Shadows" "My All Time Doll" Classical works Il Sogno performed by London Symphony Orchestra Scores G.B.H. with Richard Harvey Jake's Progress with Richard Harvey Collaborations Terror + Magnificence by John Harle The Sweetest Punch by Bill Frisell Piano Jazz with Marian McPartland Compilations Taking Liberties Ten Bloody Marys & Ten How's Your Fathers The Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions Out of Our Idiot Girls Girls Girls 2½ Years The Very Best of Elvis Costello and The Attractions 1977–86 Extreme Honey The Very Best of Elvis Costello Cruel Smile Singles, Volume 1 Singles, Volume 2 Singles, Volume 3 Rock and Roll Music The Best of Elvis Costello: The First Ten Years Related articles Discography Stiff Records / Nick Lowe Cait O'Riordan T-Bone Burnett Diana Krall

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