Giving Up The Ghost

Album: Cool Like You (2018)
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Songfacts®:

  • The Cool Like You album is a journey through Blossoms frontman Tom Ogden's love life. He sings of breaking up with the same girlfriend who inspired tracks such as "Honey Sweet" and "Getaway" on the band eponymous debut album, then falls in love all over again. Ogden told The Sun:

    "Giving up the Ghost was written in the aftermath of heartache. It's about the same person that the first album songs are all about."
  • The phrase "giving up the ghost" means to die or permanently give up hope. It relates to the Old English meaning of ghost, the soul or spirit as the source of life and originates from the King James translation of Job 14 10; "Man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?"
  • Radiohead and Starsailor have also recorded songs with the same title, while Ella Henderson had a UK #1 single that contains a "Give up the ghost" tagline.
  • In a July 2026 appearance on The Chris Moyles Show on Radio X, Ogden singled out "Giving Up The Ghost" as a stinker, joking that the track "can get in the bin." Drummer Joe Donovan then urged the station to play it "because of how much Ogden loathes it."

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