Elvis Costello  (born Declan Patrick MacManus, 25 August 1954) is an English singer-songwriter.  He began his career as part of London’s pub rock scene in the early 1970s and later became associated with the first wave of the British punk and new wave movement of the mid-to-late 1970s.  Shortly after recording his first album, he formed the Attractions as his backing band.  His first three albums all appeared on Rolling Stone’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.  Steeped in wordplay, his music has drawn on many diverse genres; one critic described him as a “pop encyclopedia”, able to “reinvent the past in his own image”.  In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked Costello number 80 on their list of the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.  (More from Wikipedia)

 

The extravagant glasses that Elton John has worn throughout his decades-long career all started when young Reg Dwight began wearing glasses in his teens “not because he needed them, but in homage to Buddy Holly”, as Philip Norman wrote in his biography of the English legend.  Lead singer Freddie Garrity of Freddie and the Dreamers is another British star who wore Buddy Holly glasses on stage; in the 1970’s, pub-music star Elvis Costello was doing the same.  Allmusic describes Freddie and the Dreamers as “the clowns of the British Invasion” due to their outlandish hits like “Do the Freddie”, but there is a lot more to them than that (though I will have to get into that another time). 

(June 2013/1)