How Soon Is Now

The oscillating guitar has been compared to the one heard in The Rolling Stones' cover of Bo Diddley's song, "I Need You Baby (Mona)." This would not be the last time that Marr would steal a riff from the Stones!

The Smiths installed red lightbulbs in their London studio to create the perfect atmosphere to record this song in.

Marr revealed to Rolling Stone magazine that he set about composing a memorable introduction: "I wanted an introduction that was almost as potent as 'Layla.' When it plays in a club or a pub, everyone knows what it is."

This was a very complex song to record. Marr broke the process down to The Guitar Magazine: "I wanted it to be really, really tense and swampy, all at the same time. Layering the slide part was what gave it the real tension. The tremolo effect came from laying down a regular rhythm part with a capo at the 2nd fret on a Les Paul, then sending that out in to the live room to four Fender Twins. John was controlling the tremolo on two of them and I was controlling the other two, and whenever they went out of sync we just had to stop the track and start all over again. It took an eternity."

Marr wrote this song, "William, It Was Really Nothing" and "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" over a productive four-day period in June 1984.

This song - which guitarist, Johnny Marr, described as The Smiths' "most enduring record" - is about their frontman Morrissey's crippling shyness. It has since become an anthem for the alienated and socially isolated.

This song was named after a question posed in Marjorie Rosen's feminist film study, Popcorn Venus - one of Morrissey's favorite books.

Morrissey lifted the line, "The heir to nothing in particular," from the 19th century novel, Middlemarch, by George Eliot.

Marr told The Guardian newspaper that the producer, John Porter, misjudged this song's opening lyric: "I remember when Morrissey first sang, 'I am the son and the heir...' John Porter went, 'Ah great, the elements!' Morrissey continued, '...of a shyness that is criminally vulgar.' I knew he'd hit the bullseye there and then."

The Smiths had difficulty playing this song live. Marr, in particular, struggled to recreate the guitar effect in concert. Bassist, Andy Rourke, called it "the bane of The Smiths' live career."

This song featured in a commercial for Pepe Jeans in 1988.

Morrissey and Marr receive 25% of the royalties for the Soho hit, "Hippychick," which samples this song's guitar riff.

This song featured in the 1998 film, The Wedding Singer, starring Adam Sandler. Love Split Love's cover provided the theme tune for the supernatural drama, Charmed.

The Russian duo, t.A.T.u. - of "All The Things She Said" fame - covered this song in 2002. Marr slammed the "silly" cover, though Morrissey called it "magnificent."

The late Jeff Buckley was utterly mesmerized by this song: "The first time I heard 'How Soon Is Now,' I can remember things changing in myself. It was 1984, in my friend's apartment in this really horrible building in Hollywood. We were there eating some sort of horrible food, with ketchup 'cause we didn't have any money, and it came on the television. The video was great, but the song completely blew everything away. It was the first time I ever heard writing like that over music like that. It influenced me because the writing was so great, because Morrissey's lyrics were so great in such a way, I don't know, like just completely freaky, unique."

Morrissey told Creem magazine that he detested this song's music video, which was produced by The Smiths' US record label, Sire, and featured live footage intercut with images of a female dancer: "It had absolutely nothing to do with The Smiths - but quite naturally we were swamped with letters from very distressed American friends saying, 'Why on earth did you make this foul video?' And of course it must be understood that Sire made that video, and we saw the video and we said to Sire, 'You can't possibly release this...this degrading video.' And they said, 'Well, maybe you shouldn't really be on our label.' It was quite disastrous."

This was the B-side to the "William, It Was Really Nothing" single, which was released in 1984. After British radio picked up on the song, it was released as a standalone single in 1985, when it charted at an underwhelming #24, much to the disappointment of Morrissey, who bemoaned to Creem magazine: "It's hard to believe that 'How Soon Is Now' was not a hit. I thought that was the one." It was reissued for a third time in 1992, when it charted at #16.

The single artwork was a still of the actor, Sean Barrett, from the 1958 film, Dunkirk. Barrett was praying in the image, but because he also looked like he was holding his crotch, the sleeve was deemed to be offensive and was consequently banned in the US.