{
  "$type": "site.standard.document",
  "canonicalUrl": "https://frankhecker.com/2023/05/19/great-songs-by-the-smiths/",
  "description": "I list my favorite songs by the Smiths.",
  "path": "/2023/05/19/great-songs-by-the-smiths/",
  "publishedAt": "2023-05-20T01:33:11.000Z",
  "site": "at://did:plc:77mn3ult3b72tpvtqqva6tat/site.standard.publication/3mpfmfpu4u72n",
  "tags": [
    "The Smiths",
    "Cohost"
  ],
  "textContent": "[](/assets/images/the-smiths.png)\n\n\\This post was originally published on [Cohost.\\]\n\nFor some reason (which I now can’t remember) the past two or three weeks I’ve been obsessively (re)listening to the Smiths, in particular to _The Smiths: Best_ playlist on Spotify. It’s an “artist playlist,” which apparently means it was endorsed by the Smiths themselves, or at least some of them, and is not to be confused with the _Best: I_ and _Best: II_ compilation albums. (There’s an almost endless string of repackagings of Smiths songs.)\n\nIt struck me that the Smiths recorded a lot of great songs, and a few days ago I started drafting a post listing my favorites. Then today came the sad news (tweeted out by Johnny Marr) of the death of Andy Rourke, bassist for the Smiths, and I felt an increased urgency to post this.\n\nThe Smiths recorded over a hundred songs (see _Complete_, which has 106 songs and is apparently still not actually complete), but I’ll confine myself to the 40 songs on the _Best_ playlist. (As a comparison, the _Best: I_ and _Best: II_ albums had 28 songs in total.)\n\nI divide these roughly into three categories:\n\n- Great songs, period: the cream of the crop\n- Great Smiths songs: excellent songs, but more for Smiths fans\n- Smiths songs: yeah, the Smiths recorded these\n\nThe following are listed in the order they appear on the _Best_ playlist, which in my opinion is not that well sequenced.\n\nGreat songs, period\n\n- “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out”\n- “How Soon Is Now”\n- “Bigmouth Strikes Again”\n- “Panic”\n- “Cemetry Gates”\n- “The Boy with the Thorn in His Side”\n- “Ask”\n- “The Queen is Dead”\n\nGreat Smiths songs\n\n- “Hand in Glove”\n- “Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want”\n- “Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now”\n- “This Charming Man”\n- “Back to the Old House”\n- “This Night Has Opened My Eyes”\n- “Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before”\n- “What Difference Does It Make?”\n- “Still Ill”\n- “Girlfriend in a Coma”\n- “William, It Was Really Nothing”\n- “Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others”\n- “Half a Person”\n- “Unloveable”\n- “Girl Afraid”\n- “Reel Around the Fountain”\n- “The Headmaster Ritual”\n- “I Want the One I Can’t Have”\n- “That Joke Isn’t Funny Anymore”\n- “Barbarism Begins at Home”\n\nSmiths songs\n\n- “I Know It’s Over”\n- “Well I Wonder”\n- “Asleep”\n- “Pretty Girls Make Graves”\n- “Frankly, Mr. Shankly”\n- “I Don’t Owe You Anything”\n- “You’ve Got Everything Now”\n- “I Won’t Share You”\n- “Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me”\n- “A Rush and a Push and the Land Is Ours”\n- “Never Had No One Ever”\n- “I Started Something I Couldn’t Finish”\n\nOther great Smiths songs\n\nI would add the following songs to the middle section of “great Smiths songs.” In my  opinion these should have been included on the “Best” playlist in place of various inferior songs from _Strangeways, Here We Come_ (the weakest Smiths album, in my opinion):\n\n- “Sheila Take a Bow”\n- “Shoplifters of the World Unite”\n- “Rubber Ring”\n\nThe essential Smiths experience\n\nIf you are new to the Smiths and would prefer a more “organic” introduction, I suggest that you skip any “best of” compilations and instead listen to the following two albums:\n\n- _The Queen Is Dead_. The Smiths’ best studio album, recorded at the height of their powers.\n- _Louder Than Bombs_. The Smiths’ best compilation album, it’s very well sequenced, especially toward the end. (“Asleep” is merely an OK song on its own, but it’s a great closer.)\n\nIf you don’t like the Smiths after that then they’re just not for you.",
  "title": "Great songs by the Smiths"
}