Songfacts®:

• This is a track from British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello's 2010 album, National Ransom. During an interview with Spinner UK the comment was made that this has a 1950's rockabilly feel to it. He responded: "When rock 'n' roll first kind of happened, it was because some people jammed together a couple of styles that nobody thought should work, like Elvis Presley had put together rhythm & blues and bluegrass, and he ends up with a rock 'n' roll version of 'Blue Moon of Kentucky'; or Ray Charles does secular lyrics and gospel music, and he gets soul. So the strongest stuff has always been from people kind of mixing up the chemicals, and that's all we're still doing. We're not making any great claims to making an innovation here. But 'Spell You Cast' is a fun tune to play. It has a double bass and drums, but it has a mandolin and an electric tenor guitar. I thought it had a little bit of rock 'n' roll to it, it has a little bit of a kind of mod thing going on in there."