Ranking the albums produced by Elvis Costello, aside from his own

Elvis Costello has produced only a handful of records for other artists, despite his confident criticism of prominent producers. He describes his role as capturing performers’ imaginative and emotional qualities, and the article ranks his outside production work, arguing that some of it became classic.

The article highlights two projects with caveats. Costello produced or co-produced only three tracks on Paul McCartney’s 1989 album *Flowers in the Dirt*, after disagreements over its sound; he later suggested listening to the demos. His work with Scottish band the Bluebells was mainly on singles, six of which appear on an early 1990s compilation; he did not produce their later UK number-one hit, “Young at Heart”.