The 71 Songs Written and Released by The Smiths, In Order
71. "Asleep"
70. "Meat Is Murder"
69. "Money Changes Everything"
68. "Back to the Old House"
67. "I Won't Share You"
66. "Unhappy Birthday"
65. "The Draize Train"
64. "Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others"
63. "Vicar in a Tutu"
62. "I Misses You"
61. "Death at One's Elbow"
60. "Death of a Disco Dancer"
59. "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"
58. "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me"
57. "Unloveable"
56. "Oscillate Wildly"
55. "Miserable Lie"
54. "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
53. "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side"
52. "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
51. "I Know It's Over"
50. "Panic"
49. "Ask"
48. "I Don't Owe You Anything"
47. "Frankly, Mr Shankly"
46. "Is It Really So Strange?"
45. "Girlfriend in a Coma"
44. "Never Had No One Ever"
43. "Paint a Vulgar Picture"
42. "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
41. "Well I Wonder"
40. "Stretch Out and Wait"
39. "I Keep Mine Hidden"
38. "London"
37. "You've Got Everything Now"
36. "Still Ill"
35. "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore"
34. "Cemetery Gates"
33. "How Soon Is Now?"
32. "Shoplifters of the World Unite"
31. "Suffer Little Children"
30. "Reel Around the Fountain"
29. "Wonderful Woman" (aka "What Do You See In Him")
28. "A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours"
27. "Pretty Girls Make Graves"
26. "Shakespeare's Sister"
25. "Sheila Take a Bow"
24. "Half a Person"
23. "William, It Was Really Nothing"
22. "I Want the One I Can't Have"
21. "The Hand That Rocks the Cradle"
20. "This Night Has Opened My Eyes"
19. "The Queen Is Dead"
18. "Barbarism Begins at Home"
17. "Hand in Glove"
16. "These Things Take Time"
15. "Sweet and Tender Hooligan"
14. "Bigmouth Strikes Again"
13. "Rusholme Ruffians"
12. "Accept Yourself"
11. "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby"
10. "Rubber Ring"
9. "Jeane"
8. "Nowhere Fast"
7. "Girl Afraid"
6. "What Difference Does It Make?"
5. "What She Said"
4. "This Charming Man"
3. "Handsome Devil"
2. "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out"
1. "The Headmaster Ritual"
it's funny, for some reason 'Cemetery Gates' always reminds me of Alex Balk.
Keats and Yeats being on the side of "everyone else."
@dntsqzthchrmn: Wilde is on mine.
@HiredGoons I lose.
Oh boy, THIS WON'T BE CONTROVERSIAL at all.
"Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want" at #59?!?!?!?
@Clarence Rosario – You can't blame him, really.
See, the luck he's had, could make a good man….turn bad…..
I love that "How Soon Is Now" rates a cool #33.
It's in honor of Larry Bird.
How can someone so young [write a listicle] so sad(ly) [misguided]? CHOIRE TAKE A BOW.
The only four notes ever sung by Morrissey, in order:
4. G#
3. C
2. F#
1. A
"Vicar in a Tutu" at 63? "Panic" at 50? I might concede these if you swapped "How soon is Now" and "The headmaster ritual" but there are flaws here. Flaws!
@Keith Kisser
You shut your mouth
How can you say
He goes about things the wrong way?
@Keith Kisser
He is human and he needs to be loved
Just like everybody else does!
NO
@nzle YOU WERE BORN AFTER THE SMITHS BROKE UP.
I saw The Smiths live and I think you're wrong too!
@LondonLee Taste is such a funny thing.
But you're probably right. (IN A FEW CASES.)
This list is un-American.
@DennyCrane To be fair, so are The Smiths.
Wrong.
There aren't 29 songs better than Reel Around the Fountain anywhere, much less just by the Smiths.
It begs the question: Awl meet-up next Sunday at Sway? Hard liquor and emotional trash?
Some Girls Are Bigger Then Others, so low! My love for it must be deeply irrational.
Oh wow! So many great songs to remember and love!
This is ridiculous. These are all 1's.
@Aatom That's the other problem? Like, 50% of the Smiths catalogue is absolutely top-notch. The top 35 to 40 are like, GANGSTER A+++.
@Choire Sicha yup. its pretty much an impossible task. but i appreciate the giant pair of balls to even make the attempt if only so people can violently disagree (enough to even create an account to say so!).
to wit: "Death of a Disco Dancer" at 60???!!! xkjhxaksjhckhckhdkckjhnksdjks!!1
i'll pretty much sit through a whole set of mediocre recent-ish morrissey just to see that one live.
It's nice to see "Handsome Devil" get some credit where credit is due. Easily their most underrated song. "Death Of A Disco Dancer", "Ask" and "Sweet And Tender Hooligan" could be a little higher, but what are you going to do?
> what are you going to do
Never feel the same way about this site again.
I disagree with a lot of these, but I'm also swinging my mouse cord around me now.
@hman word
A Rush And A Push And The Blog Is Ours!!!
Needs more David Tennant singing "The Boy With The Thorn In His Side."
If it's not love, then it's a blog, a blog, a blog, a blog, a blog, a blog, a blog that will bring us together…to get indignant over Smiths song rankings.
As you can guess by my avatar, my interest is piqued! At first I was thinking a lot of these needed to change, but upon reflection, I suppose they're mostly OK. I would move "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" up considerably, in part because it's one of the few tracks on which the band appeared to have a more than competent rhythm section (which is thanks to Marr writing a particularly good bass line, but still). I'm almost agreed on the bottom of the list, except that "Asleep" isn't quite that bad and "Meat Is Murder" is absolutely 100% the worst song they ever produced. Didactic and whiny, but at least it's boring and grating!
Not to end on a bad note about this awesome band, I'll say thanks for taking this on (also enjoyed the Morrissey-solo listicle), and note that I may well listen to "Hatful of Hollow" on my walk to the train station instead of the rest of the new Beasties album. (Speaking of groups deserving a listicle….)
@Flaneur I had to create an account just to ask you WTF you're talking about, slagging off Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce like that? One of the best rhythm sections of all time, in my book … What are the deficiencies in their playing? What are you talking about?
Wow, only 71? I remember it much bigger than that but I was smaller then.
Nice work in particular on "Jeane" at no. 9. "Hand that Rocks" should be top 10.
Fun read, so many great songs, some interesting choices and a solid bit of fan bait.
I'll bite and hereby cast a pall of doubt over #10 being placed so very high over #31…and OMG #68. I also agree with almost everyone who complained passionately about X or Y's relative placement, except for lauding the placement of "Jeane"…I'm with the kids in the park on that one.
Related, I once produced my own "Best of" compilation in iTunes, not a playlist but a fictive release, complete with cover art (I know). And I felt so strongly about the choices that I was tempted to seed it as a torrent, but eventually settled down and remembered that I am quite lazy.
But this was the listening order, unranked, of what I considered to be the 10 best Smiths songs of all time (which is of course nothing more than a personal top ten).
1. The Hand That Rocks The Cradle
2. Handsome Devil
3. Reel Around The Fountain
4. That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore
5. Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others
6. Well I Wonder
7. Suffer Little Children
8. This Night Has Opened My Eyes
9. I Won't Share You
10. I Know It's Over (live)
I think only one of these made it into the top 10 of this list, which just goes to show you how little we know about the things we love.
Did anyone read the title?? This is the order in which the songs were written….Not top 71 …
@Curtis Morice@facebook That was also the way I read it at first, but do the math and it doesn't add up. #1, #35, and #70 are from the same album. And there are many examples like this. #10?…does not compute.