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Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now
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Wikipedia article
"'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now'" is a song by English rock band the Smiths. Released as a single in May 1984, it reached No. 10 on the UK Singles Chart, making it the band's first top ten single. It was later included on the November 1984 compilation album 'Hatful of Hollow'. The song is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Background
The music was written by Johnny Marr in an hour in a New York hotel room on 2 January 1984, using a red Gibson ES-355 guitar that was bought for him that day by Seymour Stein. After finishing the song, he wrote the music for B-side "Girl Afraid" the same evening. Marr considers the two songs "a pair".
The song is notable for marking the beginning of producer Stephen Street's working relationship with the band. As one of his first roles as "in-house engineer" at Island Records' Fallout Shelter studios, Street engineered the session. He was aware of the band and excited by the prospect, saying in a HitQuarters interview, "I'd seen them just shortly beforehand on Top of the Pops doing 'This Charming Man', and like most other people around that time who were into music I was really excited by them." Although not contacted for the subsequent recording "William, It Was Really Nothing", Street was asked to engineer the Smiths' next album, 'Meat Is Murder', with Morrissey and Marr producing for the first time.
The cover features Viv Nicholson, who became famous in 1961 in the UK for winning a large amount of money on the football pools and then rapidly squandering it. The song's title was inspired by Sandie Shaw's 1969 single "Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now".
The band's performance of the song on Channel 4's 'Earsay' on 31 March 1984 features mixed footage of the band playing in a studio and footage of Morrissey walking around some wasteland in Manchester, with gladiolus flowers in his hands and in the back pocket of his trousers.
Cultural reference
Journalist Andrew Collins borrowed the song's title for the name of his autobiographical book 'Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult Student 80s', published in 2004. The title of "Girl Afraid" is taken from the 1943 film 'Old Acquaintance', starring Bette Davis and Miriam Hopkins. Hopkins's character Mildred Watson Drake is a successful author who writes a novel titled 'Girl Afraid'.
Track listing
* in original green sleeve
Etchings on vinyl
British 7": SMITHS INDEED / ILL FOREVER
British 12": SMITHS PRESUMABLY / FOREVER ILL
Charts
Certifications
References
Category:1984 singles
Category:The Smiths songs
Category:Songs written by Morrissey
Category:Songs written by Johnny Marr
Category:Act (band) songs
Category:1980s ballads
Category:1984 songs
Category:Rough Trade Records singles
Category:Rock ballads
Category:UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles
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