How Soon Is Now?

'How Soon Is Now' was written by Johnny Marr one afternoon in June 1984. Johnny posted a rough demo of the track in the mail to Morrissey. The following morning Morrissey arrived and laid down his vocals, culling lyrics from various works in progress in his notebook in the process. According to John Porter, their producer at Rough Trade records, he completed his vocals in two takes.
The song contains only one verse which is repeated twice, plus a chorus and a bridge. The story is about someone who can't quite deal with his shyness. Two lines of the lyrics are well known in pop culture:

'I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular' and the chorus: 'I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does'.
During recording, Johnny created an oscillating guitar effect that plays throughout the song. After a break, they added a few overdubs to the track, including a slide guitar part that gave the song real tension.
When Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis first heard the track, he felt it was too unrepresentative of The Smiths' sound to be released as a standalone single in it's own right. Despite pressure from John Porter to save the song for a later single release as an A-side, 'How Soon Is Now?' was included as B-side on the 12" single release of 'William, It Was Really Nothing' in August 1984. John's thoughts were 'They totally threw it away, wasted it'. But almost immediately night-time British radio picked up on the song, and by autumn it had become the most-requested track. Thus, it was subsequently included on The Smiths' compilation album Hatful of Hollow, released at the end of the year.
Due to the popularty, Rough Trade decided to re-released it as an A-side in the UK in January 1985. The 12" vinyl included a new instrumental track, 'Oscillate Wildly'. Although the track was considered something of a Smiths' classic by now, the re-release only managed to rise to UK#24, probably because everybody already had it.
Following the acquisition of the Rough Trade catalogue by Warner Bros. 'How Soon Is Now?' was issued - again - as a single in the UK in September 1992, which reached UK#16.

The track was covered numerous times, in the spectrum of musical genres ranging from metal-like versions (Quicksand & Meatmen) to out-right pop (t.A.T.u). Some of the versions were used as theme by TV programme Charmed. The famous guitar-riff was also sampled by Soho, under endorsement by The Smiths'. All of the version to find here. Enjoy :-)

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now? (1984)
UK#24, NZ#39


the smiths - how soon is now.. by robertjgunn

Quicksand - How Soon Is Now? (1993)

...recorded and...



...and live...

Meatmen - How Soon Is Now? (1996)

t.A.T.u. - How Soon Is Now? (2003)
FIN#8, SWE#10, NL#20, CH#21, BE#27, DE#33, AT#37, AUS#37



Afghan Whigs - How Soon Is Now?




...'Charmed' theme tunes...


Love Spit Love - How Soon Is Now? (1995)



Paradise Lost - How Soon Is Now? (1995)



Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now? (1995)




...sampled...


Soho - Hippychick (1990)




...and merely in title...


David Guetta, Sebastian Ingrosso, Dirty South feat. Julie McKnight- How Soon Is Now? (2009)
SWE#52