The Deuce initially wanted a woman to sing Season 2's theme song, but settled on Elvis Costello

Vulture

The HBO drama chose an Elvis Costello song for its new opening title sequence, instead of a female artist, because music supervisor Blake Leyh says “the misogyny of the music industry” in the late 1970s meant there were few female singer-songwriters. David Simon was able to get Costello's permission because he had appeared on his earlier HBO series Treme and the singer had watched The Deuce's first season.