Songfacts®:

• This song is about being rejected by a close friend after they find out a secret about you. Some fans believe The Smiths' front man, Morrissey, is singing about how he was snubbed by a friend after revealing that he was gay.
• Morrissey told Following The Mozziah that he was not at all fond of this song's lyrics: "'What Difference Does It Make' is musically interesting but lyrically it is very...Simon Le Bon [Duran Duran]. I find the lyrics facile and mildly embarrassing. Otherwise it's a majestic pop melody by Johnny and, ironically, had the lyrics indeed been penned by Simon Le Bon, I would probably cover it! As it is I'd feel too ashamed."
• The Smiths planned to use a photograph of Terrence Stamp on the set of the 1965 film, The Collector, for the single artwork. Stamp initially denied the band the use of his image, so Morrissey re-enacted the photograph instead. Stamp later changed his mind, and the original artwork was printed as planned. Those early pressings with the alternative Morrissey artwork are now very collectable.
• This song is lifted from The Smiths' self-titled debut album, which peaked at #2 in the UK in 1984. In 2003, the album ranked at #481 on Rolling Stone magazine's "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.
• "What Difference Does It Make?" was one of the few tracks on the album The Smiths that evolved significantly from its original form. Producer John Porter recalled to Mojo magazine how Mike Joyce initially played a loose, tom-heavy drum part that felt "a bit... bumbly," prompting Porter to push for something tighter with more of an R&B-style groove.
  
  Porter drew inspiration from Howlin' Wolf's "How Many More Years" as a guide for the rhythm.
• The track was one of the first times the band leaned heavily on layered guitars, with Johnny Marr building up overdubs to add texture and variation. "We didn't have horns and we couldn't use backing vocals because Morrissey didn't like them," Porter explained. "So we thought, OK, let's do it all on guitars."