How Soon Is Now?
| How Soon Is Now? | |
|---|---|
| The Smiths | |
| publication | January 28, 1985 |
| length | 6:46 min. (Album version) 3:53 min. (USA edit) |
| Genre (s) | Alternative rock |
| Author (s) | Johnny Marr , Morrissey |
| Producer (s) | John Porter |
| album | Meat Is Murder |
How Soon Is Now? is a song by the British rock band The Smiths . It was originally only released as the b-side of the single William, It Was Really Nothing in 1984, but was released as a standalone single from the album Meat Is Murder in the UK the following year . In 2007, co-writer Johnny Marr named How Soon Is Now? In an interview with the music magazine Uncut, it was probably the band's longest-running song. Although it is different from other songs by The Smiths, it is still one of their best known pieces to this day. The band received a lot of praise for the lyrics to How Soon Is Now? . Still, the song didn't score as well on the chart as Marr and Morrissey expected.
Emergence
Johnny Marr wrote the song in June 1984 and recorded it at London's Jam Studios in July of that year. The structure of the song is quite simple: it only consists of a verse that is repeated twice, as well as a chorus and a bridge . The guitar sound is particularly striking at the beginning of the song, which quickly swells and increases in volume.
publication
Rough Trade Records , the group's record label, turned down a release of How Soon Is Now? as a single from first, as CEO Geoff Travis did not consider the sound of the piece to be representative of the other songs in the band. Therefore, it appeared in August 1984 only as the B-side of the single William, It Was Really Nothing and in November on the compilation album Hatful of Hollow . In the United States, however, the song was released on Sire Records as a single with a music video, but did not hit the charts. Geoff Travis had actually expected that the song would develop into a top 10 hit, and explained the non-entry into the US charts with poor promotion. Morrissey was also disappointed with the bad performance of the single in the USA.
Despite the overseas failure, How Soon Is Now? finally released on January 28, 1985 in the UK as a standalone single. But even in the British charts, the song performed worse than expected and only reached number 24 in the UK Top 40 . John Porter, producer of the single, cited the main reason for the renewed failure that all The Smiths fans already knew the song and therefore did not buy the single. Warner Bros. Records released the single again in Great Britain in September 1992, this time it reached number 16 on the UK Singles Chart.
Music video
Sire Records made an unauthorized music video to promote the song. It consists of video clips from live performances by the band and also shows a dancing girl and the industrial complex of a city. The band themselves didn't like the music video, and Morrissey and Marr tried to prevent it from being released. When the record label threatened to terminate the artist's contract, they both finally complied.
Cover versions
The piece has been covered several times over the years. The American band Love Spit Love recorded the song for the soundtrack to the film The Witches Club . This cover version was later used as the theme music for the television series Charmed . In 2000, the rock band coverte Snake River Conspiracy the title and reached number 38 of the modern rock track charts of Billboard Magazine . The most successful was the cover version of the Russian vocal duo tATu
Cover version of tATu
tATu covered the song on their first English-language album 200 km / h in the Wrong Lane , which was released worldwide in late 2002. On July 6, 2003, How Soon Is Now? decoupled as the third and final single from the album and was released in Europe and Russia. The B-side includes the piece Ne wer, ne boisja , with which tATu took third place at the 2003 Eurovision Song Contest . The CD A Tribute to The Smiths was released on February 20, 2007 , on the tATus cover version of How Soon Is Now? is included as the theme song.
Music video
Based on the music video from The Smiths, the music video for tATus cover version also consists of video clips. The duo can be seen performing live in Eastern Europe, in their everyday life and during the studio recordings for the song. It was put together by the two singers Jelena Katina and Julija Wolkowa themselves, making it the duo's first music video that was not directed by their manager Ivan Schapovalov . However, the music video was not very successful and was rarely played by European or Russian music channels.
criticism
Opinions about tATus cover version differed widely. While Johnny Marr called them "just stupid", Morrissey called them "absolutely great". James Delingpole of the Daily Telegraph even described tATus cover version as "better than the original".
success
tATu's last single from their English-language debut album was moderately successful. In Germany and Austria the single reached the top 40, in Switzerland the top 30. The song was most successful in Northeastern Europe : In Russia and Sweden, How Soon Is Now? at number ten, in Finland at number eight on the charts. The song also hit the charts in Australia (number 37), the Netherlands (number 20) and Belgium (number 27). In Great Britain it could not place itself in the charts, while in Japan it reached number 56 on the radio airplay chart and lasted for five weeks.
Chart placements
| Charts | Top position |
Weeks |
|---|---|---|
 Germany
|
33 | 8th |
 Austria
|
37 | 5 |
 Switzerland
|
21st | 6th |
 Russia
|
10 | - |
Individual evidence
- ↑ https://www.allmusic.com/song/mt0011905928
- ↑ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/4915848.stm
- ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original dated August 11, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_U5HpeA_WSo
- ↑ http://motorcycleaupairboy.com/interviews/1999/laconf.htm
- ↑ https://www.discogs.com/tATu-How-Soon-Is-Now-Pockit/master/89910
- ↑ http://www.tatu.ru/en/news.html?id=477&page=39
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TmJ_hGOVebs
- ↑ http://welshcake.com/september04.html
- ↑ http://eng.tatysite.net/press/review.php?id=436_0_9_40
- ↑ http://www.swedishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=tatu&titel=How+Soon+is+Now%3F&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.finnishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=tatu&titel=How+Soon+is+Now%3F&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.australian-charts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=tatu&titel=How+Soon+is+Now%3F&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.dutchcharts.nl/showitem.asp?interpret=tatu&titel=How+Soon+is+Now%3F&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=tatu&titel=How+Soon+is+Now%3F&cat=s
- ↑ http://www.mariah-charts.com/chartdata/PtATu.htm
- ↑ Chart placement in Germany ( Memento of the original from April 29, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Chart placement in Austria
- ↑ Chart placement in Switzerland
- ↑ Chart placement in Russia
