"I Knew the Bride" is a song written by Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe

Nicholas Drain "Nick" Lowe , is an English singer-songwriter, musician and producer.A pivotal figure in UK pub rock, punk rock and new wave, Lowe has recorded a string of well-reviewed solo albums. Along with vocals, Lowe plays guitar, bass guitar, piano and harmonica...

 and first popularized by Dave Edmunds

Dave Edmunds

David 'Dave' Edmunds is a Welsh singer, guitarist and record producer. Although he is primarily associated with Pub rock and New Wave, and had numerous hits in the 1970s and early 1980s, his natural leaning has always been towards 1950s style rock and roll.-Early bands:As a teenager Edmunds first...

. It was released on Edmunds's 1977 album Get It and a year later in a live version by Nick Lowe's Last Chicken in the Shop for a compilation released by Stiff Records.

Lowe performed the song during a Stiff Records European tour with Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello

Elvis Costello , born Declan Patrick MacManus, is an English singer-songwriter. He came to prominence as an early participant in London's pub rock scene in the mid-1970s and later became associated with the punk/New Wave genre. Steeped in word play, the vocabulary of Costello's lyrics is broader...

, Ian Dury

Ian Dury

Ian Robins Dury was an English rock and roll singer, lyricist, bandleader and actor who initially rose to fame during the late 1970s, during the punk and New Wave era of rock music...

, Wreckless Eric

Wreckless Eric

Wreckless Eric is an English rock and roll/new wave singer-songwriter, best known for his 1977 single " Whole Wide World" on Stiff Records. More than two decades after its release, the song was included in Mojo magazine’s list of the best punk rock singles of all time...

, and Larry Wallis

Larry Wallis

Larry Wallis is a guitarist, songwriter and producer. He is best known as a member of the Pink Fairies and an early member of Motörhead.-Early bands:...

; the tour was filmed for the 1981 documentary If It Ain't Stiff, It Ain't Worth a Fuck. In 1985, Nick Lowe and his Cowboy Outfit recorded a studio version for The Rose of England

The Rose of England (album)

The Rose of England is an album by British singer-songwriter Nick Lowe, released in 1985.-Track listing:All songs by Nick Lowe unless otherwise noted.# "Darlin' Angel Eyes" – 2:45# "She Don't Love Nobody" – 3:23...

.

A live version is also part of the bootleg

Bootleg recording

A bootleg recording is an audio or video recording of a performance that was not officially released by the artist or under other legal authority. The process of making and distributing such recordings is known as bootlegging...

 album They Call It Rock from the late 1970s. The song was a 2006 bonus track

Bonus track

In terms of recorded music, a bonus track is a piece of music which has been included on specific releases or reissues of an album. This is most often done as a promotional device, either as an incentive to customers to purchase albums they might otherwise not, or to repurchase albums they already...

 on the re-release of the 1999 album Under the Influence

Under the Influence (Status Quo album)

Under the Influence is the twenty-third studio album by English rock band Status Quo, released in 1999.-Track listing:# "Twenty Wild Horses" 5:00# "Under the Influence" 4:03# "Round and Round" 3:25...

by Status Quo.

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter S. Thompson

Hunter Stockton Thompson was an American journalist and author who wrote The Rum Diary , Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas and Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail '72 .He is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting where reporters involve themselves in the action to...

's Songs of the Doomed

Songs of the Doomed

Gonzo Papers, Vol. 3: Songs of the Doomed: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream is a book by the American writer and journalist Hunter S. Thompson, originally published in 1990...

: More Notes on the Death of the American Dream, a 1990 anthology of essays and works of new journalism

New Journalism

New Journalism was a style of 1960s and 1970s news writing and journalism which used literary techniques deemed unconventional at the time. The term was codified with its current meaning by Tom Wolfe in a 1973 collection of journalism articles he published as The New Journalism, which included...

, has a chapter named after the song. The song is part of the Sounds of the Seventies: Punk and New Wave from Time-Life Records.

Critical reception

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau

Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...

, upon the release of Live Stiffs Live, characterized the song as "Lowe's answer to "You Never Can Tell

You Never Can Tell (song)

"You Never Can Tell" also occasionally referred to as "C'est La Vie" is a rock and roll song by Chuck Berry. It was composed while he was in prison for intent to commit a sex crime. The song was originally released in 1964 on the album St...

", a 1964 song by Chuck Berry

St. Louis to Liverpool

St. Louis to Liverpool is a rock and roll album by Chuck Berry, released in 1964 on Chess Records, catalogue 1488. It peaked at #124 on the Billboard album chart.-Content:...

. Decades later, Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits

Austin City Limits is an American public television music program recorded live in Austin, Texas by Public Broadcasting Service Public television member station KLRU, and broadcast on many PBS stations around the United States...

called it a "cheeky roots

Roots rock

Roots rock is a term now used to describe rock music that looks back to rock's origins in folk, blues and country music. It is particularly associated with the creation of hybrid sub-genres from the later 1960s including country rock and Southern rock, which have been seen as responses to the...

/pop tune."

Cover versions

Cover version

Cover version

In popular music, a cover version or cover song, or simply cover, is a new performance or recording of a contemporary or previously recorded, commercially released song or popular song...

s of the songs have been released on various albums, including:

• 1998: Very Best of the Knack, a compilation album by The Knack
  The Knack
  The Knack was an American New Wave rock quartet based in Los Angeles that rose to fame with their first single, "My Sharona", an international number one hit in 1979.-Founding :...
  
  , released by Rhino Records
• 2008: Love Must Be Tough
  Love Must Be Tough
  Love Must Be Tough is Eleanor McEvoy's 7th studio album. McEvoy has taken a new direction with this album. Unlike her previous six albums, which, with the exception of a few tracks, were written solely by McEvoy, Love Must Be Tough is a mixture of covers/interpretations and self-penned...
  
  by Eleanor McEvoy
  Eleanor McEvoy
  Eleanor McEvoy is one of Ireland's most accomplished contemporary singer/songwriters. McEvoy composed the song Only A Woman's Heart, title track of A Woman's Heart, the best-selling Irish album in Irish history.-Biography:...
  
  

External links

• Hand Picked: Musical Fantasies by Dave Edmunds, including a two-minute sample of "I Knew the Bride" (from ItsAboutMusic.com)
• Step Sheet for line dancing
  Line dance
  A line dance is a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people dance in one or more lines or rows without regard for the gender of the individuals, all facing the same direction, and executing the steps at the same time. Line dancers are not in physical contact...
  
  to the song (from copperknob.co.uk)