On this day in history (February 20, 1984), The Smiths released their self-titled debut album featuring the single What Difference Does It Make and This Charming Man. The sleeve for the album was designed by Morrissey and features American actor Joe Dallesandro in a cropped still from Andy Warhol’s 1968 film Flesh. While there were not too many official singles from this record, Still Ill, Hand And Glove and Reel Around The Fountain are additional songs that have received plenty of accolades from fans of The Smiths.
Videos
What Difference Does It Make
This Charming Man
Charts and Accolades
- Peaked at #2 on the UK Albums Chart
- Slant Magazine ranked #51 on its list of Best Albums Of The 1980s
- PopMatters ranked one of the “12 Essential Alternative Rock Albums from the 1980s”
- Rolling Stone ranked #22 on it’s 100 Greatest Albums Of The 1980’s list
- In 2012, Rolling Stone ranked #473 on it’s 500 Greatest Albums Of All TIme list
There’s no reason why a mordant, sexually frustrated disciple of Oscar Wilde who loved punk but crooned like a malfunctioning Sinatra should’ve teamed up with a fabulously inventive guitarist whose influences were so diffuse that it could be hard to hear them at all and formed one of the greatest songwriting duos of the ’80s
– Slant Magazine
Track Listing
- Reel Around The Fountain
- You’ve Got Everything Now
- Miserable Lie
- Pretty Girls Make Graves
- The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
- This Charming Man
- Still Ill
- Hand In Glove
- What Difference Does It Make?
- I Don’t Owe You Anything
- Suffer Little Children
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