Girlfriend in a coma
Release date: 1987, August
UK Chart: 13
Cover Star: British playwright Shelagh Delaney, in her play Taste of Honey, 1958.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: 7”• B- SO FAR, SO BAD
12”• A- EVERYBODY IS A FLASHER AT HEART / B- AND NEVER MORE SHALL BE SO
Listen to the song here
Poster Available Here
Girlfriend in a coma - The Smiths,1987, aug
Girlfriend in a coma
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know – it’s serious
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know – it’s really serious
There were times when I could
Have “murdered” her
(But you know, I would hate
Anything to happen to her)
NO, I DON’T WANT TO SEE HER
Do you really think
She’ll pull through ?
Do you really think
She’ll pull through ?
Pull through …
Girlfriend in a coma, I know
I know – it’s serious
My, my, my, my, my, my baby, goodbye
Last night I dreamt that somebody loved me
Release date: 1987, December
UK Chart: 30
Cover Star: Billy Fury, english singer. In a 1984 interview Morrissey included Billy Fury’s singles in his brief collection of most treasured people and possessions. Morrissey has told that Billy “was discovered working on the docks in Liverpool, was dragged to London, styled and forced to make records. He always wanted to make very emotional overblown ballads but found himself in the midst of the popular arena. He despised almost every aspect of the music industry and was very, very ill from early age”.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: A- “THE RETURN OF THE SUBMISSIVE SOCIETY” (X) STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE* / B-“ THE BIZARRE ORIENTAL VIBRATING PALM DEATH” (X) STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE
*Sheridan Whiteside was one of Morrissey’s pseudonyms.
Listen to the song here
Poster Available Here
Last night I dreamt - The Smiths, 1987, Dec
Last night I dreamed that somebody loved me
Last night I dreamt
That somebody loved me
No hope, but no harm
Just another false alarm
Last night I felt
real arms around me
No hope, no harm
Just another false alarm
So, tell me how long
Before the last one ?
And tell me how long
Before the right one ?
The story is old – I KNOW
But it goes on
The story is old – I KNOW
But it goes on
Oh, GOES ON
And on
Oh, goes on
And on
Panic
Release date: 1986, July
UK Chart: 11
Cover star: Richard Bradford, Texas-born actor, star of the 1967 British series The Man in a Suitcase. The actor said he liked being on the cover because he was informed The Smiths were a good band but he never heard any of them. He was expecting to received a copy of the single but the record company sent hom the single without vinyl inside.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: B- I DREAMT ABOUT STEW LAST NIGHT
Listen to the song here
Posters Available Here
Panic - The Smiths poster, 1986, July
Panic
Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again ?
The Leeds side-streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Hopes may rise on the Grasmere
But Honey Pie, you’re not safe here
So you run down
To the safety of the town
But there’s Panic on the streets of Carlisle
Dublin, Dundee, Humberside
I wonder to myself
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
IT SAYS NOTHING TO ME ABOUT MY LIFE
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music they constantly play
Panic B- The Smiths poster, 1986, July
On the Leeds side-streets that you slip down
Provincial towns you jog ’round
Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ
Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
HANG THE DJ, HANG THE DJ
Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ, Hang the DJ
HANG THE DJ
How soon is now?
Release date: 1985, February
UK Chart: 2
Cover Star: British actor Sean Barrett. The picture is a still from Dunkirk, a British movie directed by Leslie Norman in 1958. Barrett’s character is praying on the beach.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: A- THE TATTY TRUTH
Listen to the song here
Poster Available at Shop
How soon is now? - The Smiths,1985, Feb
How Soon Is Now?
I am the son
and the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
I am the son
And the heir
Of a shyness that is criminally vulgar
I am the son and heir
Of nothing in particular
You shut your mouth
How can you say
I go about things the wrong way
I am Human and I need to be loved
Just like everybody else does
What difference does it make?
Release date: 1984, January
UK Chart: 12
Cover: British actor Terence Stamp. The still was taken from the film The Collector, 1965 directed by William Wyler. Terence Stamp did not give consent to use his image, so the Smiths withdrew the current singles and distributed them again with a recreation of the picture in that case characterised by Morrissey. The Smiths would obtain Terence Stamp’s permission and published the single back on the original cover.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: none
Listen to the song here
Poster Available at Shop
What difference does it make – The Smiths, 1984, January
What difference does it make?
All men have secrets and here is mine
So let it be known
For we have been through hell and high tide
I can surely rely on you …
And yet you start to recoil
Heavy words are so lightly thrown
But still I’d leap in front of a flying bullet for you
So, what difference does it make ?
So, what difference does it make ?
It makes none
But now you have gone
And you must be looking very old tonight
The devil will find work for idle hands to do
I stole and I lied, and why ?
Because you asked me to !
But now you make me feel so ashamed
Because I’ve only got two hands
Well, I’m still fond of you, oh-ho-oh
Heaven Knows I’m miserable now
Release date: 1984, May
UK Chart: 10
Cover star: The ‘cover star’ is 1961 152.000 Pounds Pools winner Viv Nicholson who wrote a book call Spend Spend Spend after she went bankruptcy. The picture shows Nicholson standing outside her childhood home just after her husband had died.
Etchings on the single’s matrix:
7″· A- SMITHS INDEED / B- ILL FOREVER.
12″· A- SMITHS PRESUMABLY / B- FOREVER ILL
Listen to the song here
Poster Available Here
Heaven knows I
Heaven knows I’m miserable now
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour
But heaven knows I’m miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I’m miserable now
In my life
Why do I give valuable time
To people who don’t care if I live or die ?
Two lovers entwined pass me by
And heaven knows I’m miserable now
I was looking for a job, and then I found a job
And heaven knows I’m miserable now
In my life
Oh, why do I give valuable time
To people who don’t care if I live or die ?
William, it was really nothing
Release date: 1984, August
UK chart: 17
Cover star: Uncredited photograph of a man sitting on the edge of a bed for included in a 1982 advertisement for A.D.S. speakers (on the cover of the single a speaker can be seen on the bed). However due to legal reasons later pressings were replaced by Morrissey for a still of Billie Whitelaw from the film Charlie Bubbles, directed by Albert Finney, 1967.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: A- THE IMPOTENCE OF ERNEST / B- ROMANTIC AND SQUARE IS HIP ‘N’ AWARE
Listen to the song here
William, it was really nothing – The Smiths, 1984, Aug
William, it was really nothing
The rain falls hard on a humdrum town
This town has dragged you down
Oh, the rain falls hard on a humdrum town
This town has dragged you down
Oh, no, and everybody’s got to live their life
And God knows I’ve got to live mine
God knows I’ve got to live mine
William, William it was really nothing
William, William it was really nothing
It was your life …
How can you stay with a fat girl who’ll say :
“Oh ! Would you like to marry me ?
“And if you like you can buy the ring”
She doesn’t care about anything
Would you like to marry me ?
And if you like you can buy the ring
I don’t dream about anyone – except myself !
Oh, William, William it was really nothing
William, William
This Charming man
This Charming man release date: 1983, october
UK Chart: 25
Cover star: French actor Jean Marais in a still from Jean Cocteau’s 1950 film Orpheé.
Etchings on the single’s matrix: 12″ A- WILL NATURE MAKE A MAN OF ME YET / 7″ B- SLAP ME ON THE PATIO
Listen to the song here
Poster Available at Shop
This Charming man - The Smiths, 1983, oct
This Charming man
A punctured bicycle
On a hillside desolate
Will nature make a man of me yet ?
When in this charming car
This charming man
Why pamper life’s complexity
When the leather runs smooth
On the passenger seat
I would go out tonight
But I haven’t got a stitch to wear
This man said “It’s gruesome that someone so handsome should care”
A jumped up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said “return the ring”
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
I would go out tonight
But I haven’t got a stitch to wear
This man said “It’s gruesome that someone so handsome should care”
Na, na-na, na-na, na-na, this charming man …
Na, na-na, na-na, na-na, this charming man …
A jumped up pantry boy
Who never knew his place
He said “return the ring”
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things
He knows so much about these things