Oliver's Army

Released on Radar on 2 February 1979 with My Funny Valentine on the B-side, it was recorded at Eden Studios in August and September 1978 and produced by Lowe. Costello wrote it after seeing British soldiers on patrol in Belfast during his 1978 trip. His premise was that they always get a working-class boy to do the killing. He said it was not meant to read as a coherent political argument, because it was pop music. Nieve has said the piano figure was inspired by ABBA's Dancing Queen.

It reached number 2 in the UK, with twelve weeks on the chart, and number 4 in Ireland. It did not chart in the US. Sound On Sound says it sold over half a million copies. Chuck Statler's video was shot in Hawaii at four in the morning in a strip club and aired on MTV's first American broadcast day, 1 August 1981. Blur, OK Go, Cannon and Ball, Belle and Sebastian and Nick Lowe have all covered it.

Live

He first played it at Roskilde in 1978. It was a staple until January 2022, when he said he would stop playing it, and he brought it back in an updated version in 2024. Notable performances include a 1984 concert during the miners' strike and Glastonbury in 2013. Setlist.fm logs it 125 times.