This Charming Man
Encyclopedia
"This Charming Man" is a song by the English band The Smiths
, written by guitarist Johnny Marr
and singer/lyricist Morrissey
. It was released as the group's second single in October 1983 on the independent record label
Rough Trade
. The song is defined by Marr's jangle pop
guitar riff and Morrissey's characteristically morose lyrics, which revolve around the recurrent Smiths themes of sexual ambiguity and lust.
Feeling detached from and unable to relate to the early 1980s mainstream gay culture
, Morrissey wrote "This Charming Man" to evoke an older, more coded and self-aware underground scene. The singer explained of the song's lyrics, "I really like the idea of the male voice being quite vulnerable, of it being taken and slightly manipulated, rather than there being always this heavy machismo thing that just bores everybody."
Although only moderately successful on first release—the single peaked at number 25 on the British singles chart—"This Charming Man" has been widely praised in both the music and mainstream press. The single was re-issued in 1992, reaching number 8 on the UK singles chart (making it The Smiths' biggest UK hit by chart position). In 2004, BBC Radio 2
listeners voted it number 97 on the station's "Sold On Song Top 100" poll. Mojo
magazine journalists placed the track at number one on their 2008 "50 Greatest UK Indie Records of All Time" feature.
DJ
John Peel
's radio show, generated a large media buzz for the band. In a music scene dominated by corporate and video-driven acts, the Smiths' camp
and bookish image stood out, and many expected the band to be the breakthrough act of the UK post-punk
movement. The previous October Frankie Goes to Hollywood
released their iconic track "Relax
", which was seen as an anthem to an out
alpha male self-assertiveness, and alien to many UK homosexuals. However, The Smiths' May 1983 debut single "Hand in Glove
" failed to live up to critical and commercial expectations, mostly due to its perceived low production values. When Rough Trade label mates Aztec Camera
began to receive day-time national radio-play with their track "Walk out to Winter", Marr admitted to "feeling a little jealous, my competitive urges kicked in". The guitarist believed The Smiths needed an up-beat song, "in a major key", in order to gain a chart positioning that would live up to expectations.
Marr wrote the music to "This Charming Man" especially for the Peel session on the same night that he wrote "Still Ill" and "Pretty Girls Make Graves". Based on the Peel performance, Rough Trade label head Geoff Travis
suggested that the band release the song as a single instead of the slated release "Reel Around the Fountain", which had gathered notoriety in the press due to what were seen as lyrical references to paedophilia. The Smiths entered Matrix Studios in London on September 1983 to record a second studio version of the song for release as a single. However, the result—known as the 'London version'—was unsatisfactory and soon after, the band travelled to Strawberry Studios
in Stockport
to try again. Here, they recorded the more widely heard A-side.
Morrissey deliberately used archaic language when composing the voice-over style lyrics for "This Charming Man". His use of phrases and words such as 'hillside desolate', 'stitch to wear', 'handsome' and 'charming' are used to convey a more courtly world than the mid-Eighties north of England, and evoke a style that has, in the words of the music critic Mat Snow "nothing to do with fashion". Morrissey had already used the word 'handsome' in a song title—in "Handsome Devil", the B-side to "Hand in Glove"—and observed in a 1983 interview with Barney Hoskyns
that he used the word to "try and revive some involvement with language people no longer use. In the daily scheme of things, people's language is so frighteningly limited, and if you use a word with more than 10 letters it's absolute snobbery." Snow puts forward the case that through the use of the dated word 'charming', Morrissey sought to rebel against the then mainstream gay culture from which he felt alienated. Morrissey told Hoskyns: "I hate this 'festive faggot' thing...People listen to "This Charming Man" and think no further than what anyone would presume. I hate that angle, and it's surprising that the gay press have harped on more than anyone else. I hate it when people talk to me about sex in a trivial way."
As with many of Morrissey's compositions, the song's lyrics features dialog borrowed from a cult film. The line "A jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place" is borrowed from the 1972 film adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's 1970 homoerotic play Sleuth, in which Laurence Olivier
plays a cuckold
ed author to Michael Caine
's 'bit of rough'.
Both studio versions begin with an introductory guitar riff
, joined by the rhythm section. Morrissey's vocals are first heard eight seconds into the track. His vocal melodies are diatonic
, and consciously avoid blues
inflections. The chorus
is played twice; the first time it is followed by a brief pause, the second by the closing of the song. The rhythm section
of Andy Rourke
and Mike Joyce
provide a beat more danceable than usual for a Smiths track. The drums were originally programmed on a Linn Drum Computer
, under the direction of producer John Porter
. Porter used the programme to trigger the sampled sounds of the live drum kit, featuring a Motownesque bassline
. Marr's guitar part consists of single notes of thirds as opposed to strummed bar chords, and his guitar serves to creates a counter-melody
throughout the song. Marr overdubbed numerous guitar parts onto the song, and in a December 1993 interview, told Guitar Player
magazine:
of the NME
wrote, "'This Charming Man' is an accessible bliss, and seriously moving. This group fully understand that the casual is not enough... This is one of the greatest singles of the year, a poor compliment. Unique and indispensable, like 'Blue Monday
' and 'Karma Chameleon
' - that's better!" A contemporary review in The Face
asked, "Where has all the wildness and daring got to? Some of it has found its way onto The Smiths' record, 'This Charming Man'. It jangles and crashes and Morrissey jumps in the middle with his mutant choir-boy voice, sounding jolly and angst-ridden at the same time. It should be given out on street corners to unsuspecting passers-by of all ages." While the band was little-known in the United States at the time, Robert Palmer of The New York Times
described the song as "sparkling, soaring, superlative pop-rock, and proof that the guitar-band format pioneered by The Beatles
is still viable for groups with something to say". The following year Palmer chose the song as the second best single of 1984.
Allmusic's Ned Raggett
noted that "Early Elvis
would have approved of the music, Wilde
of the words", and described the track as "an audacious end result by any standard". Tim DiGravina, of the same organization, wrote that "Debating the merits of the track here would be a bit pointless, as it's a classic song from one of the last great classic bands. It might as well be called 'This Charming Song'." In 2007, Oasis
songwriter Noel Gallagher
described the first time he heard the track: "The second I heard 'This Charming Man' everything made sense. The sound of that guitar intro was incredible. The lyrics are fuckin' amazing, too. People say Morrissey's a miserable cunt, but I knew straight away what he was on about."
During an appearance on Top of the Pops, Morrissey appeared waving gladioli
. A 2004 BBC Radio 2 feature on the song noted that the performance was most people's introduction to The Smiths and, "therefore, to the weird, wordy world of Morrissey and the music of Johnny Marr". Uncut magazine, commentating on the nationally televised debut, wrote that "Thursday evening when Manchester's feyest first appeared on Top of the Pops would be an unexpected pivotal cultural event in the lives of a million serious English boys. His very English, camp glumness was a revolt into Sixties kitchen-sink greyness against the gaudiness of the Eighties New Wave music
, as exemplified by Culture Club
and their ilk. The Smiths' subject matter may have been 'squalid' but there was a purity of purpose about them that you messed with at your peril." Noel Gallagher said of the performance: "None of my mates liked them — they were more hooligan types. They came into work and said 'Fuckin' hell, did you see that poof on "Top of the Pops" with the bush in his back pocket?' But I thought it was life-changing."
's radio programme. Produced by Roger Pusey, and assisted by Ted De Bono, this version of the song was first included on the 1984 compilation Hatful of Hollow
. On 28 October 1983, the "Manchester" version was released in the UK in 7" and 12" formats, reaching number 25 in the UK charts. The record sleeve uses a still frame from Jean Cocteau
's 1949 film Orphée
, featuring French actor Jean Marais
. The song was later included as a bonus track on the cassette version of the band's debut album The Smiths
in the UK, and subsequently on all American versions.
Following the 1989 bankruptcy of Rough Trade, WEA Records
purchased The Smiths' back catalogue. In 1992 WEA re-issued the band's catalogue, and all subsequent pressings of The Smiths have incorporated "This Charming Man". WEA re-released the single itself in 1992 to support the Best...I compilation album
. The reissued single reached number eight on the British singles chart, the band's highest chart placing.
In December 1983, DJ François Kevorkian
released a "New York" mix of the single on Megadisc records. Kevorkian geared the song for nightclub
dancefloors, and the track was intended to be pressed in limited numbers for New York club DJs. However, Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis liked the mix and gave the release wide distribution in the UK. Morrissey publicly disowned the mix, and urged fans not to purchase copies. Travis later claimed, "it was my idea, but they agreed. They said 'Go ahead', then didn't like it so it was withdrawn." He also said, "Nothing that ever happened in The Smiths occurred without Morrissey's guidance; there's not one Smiths record that went out that Morrissey didn't ask to do, so there's nothing on my conscience."
Two music video
s were made for "This Charming Man". The first was filmed by the British television show The Tube
, and features the band playing the song in an empty room. The second is from an appearance on the Riverside
television programme, and shows the band playing the song in a room with a floor covered by flowers.
"This Charming Man" has been covered numerous times by a variety of artists in a number of genres. Death Cab for Cutie
covered the track for their 1997 demo You Can Play These Songs With Chords
. In 2001, Canadian indie pop
outfit Stars released their own take on the song on their A Lot of Little Lies for the Sake of One Big Truth
EP.
The Smiths
The Smiths were an English alternative rock band, formed in Manchester in 1982. Based on the song writing partnership of Morrissey and Johnny Marr , the band also included Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce...
, written by guitarist Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr
Johnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
and singer/lyricist Morrissey
Morrissey
Steven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
. It was released as the group's second single in October 1983 on the independent record label
Independent record label
An independent record label is a record label operating without the funding of or outside the organizations of the major record labels. A great number of bands and musical acts begin on independent labels.-Overview:...
Rough Trade
Rough Trade Records
Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London. It was formed in 1978 by Geoff Travis who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove...
. The song is defined by Marr's jangle pop
Jangle pop
Jangle pop is a genre of alternative rock from the mid-1980s that "marked a return to the chiming or jangly guitars and pop melodies of the '60s" bands such as The Byrds, with their electric twelve-string guitars and power pop song structures. Mid-1980s jangle pop was a non-mainstream "pop-based...
guitar riff and Morrissey's characteristically morose lyrics, which revolve around the recurrent Smiths themes of sexual ambiguity and lust.
Feeling detached from and unable to relate to the early 1980s mainstream gay culture
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures
Sexuality and gender identity-based cultures are subcultures and communities composed of persons who have shared experiences, background, or interests due to a common sexual or gender identity. Among the first to argue that members of sexual minorities can constitute cultural minorities as well as...
, Morrissey wrote "This Charming Man" to evoke an older, more coded and self-aware underground scene. The singer explained of the song's lyrics, "I really like the idea of the male voice being quite vulnerable, of it being taken and slightly manipulated, rather than there being always this heavy machismo thing that just bores everybody."
Although only moderately successful on first release—the single peaked at number 25 on the British singles chart—"This Charming Man" has been widely praised in both the music and mainstream press. The single was re-issued in 1992, reaching number 8 on the UK singles chart (making it The Smiths' biggest UK hit by chart position). In 2004, BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2
BBC Radio 2 is one of the BBC's national radio stations and the most popular station in the United Kingdom. Much of its daytime playlist-based programming is best described as Adult Contemporary or AOR, although the station is also noted for its specialist broadcasting of other musical genres...
listeners voted it number 97 on the station's "Sold On Song Top 100" poll. Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
magazine journalists placed the track at number one on their 2008 "50 Greatest UK Indie Records of All Time" feature.
Background
By early 1983, The Smiths had gained a large following on the UK live circuit and had signed a record deal with the indie label Rough Trade. The deal, along with positive concert reviews in the weekly music press and an upcoming session on BBC Radio 1BBC Radio 1
BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station operated by the British Broadcasting Corporation which also broadcasts internationally, specialising in current popular music and chart hits throughout the day. Radio 1 provides alternative genres after 7:00pm including electronic dance, hip hop, rock...
DJ
Disc jockey
A disc jockey, also known as DJ, is a person who selects and plays recorded music for an audience. Originally, "disc" referred to phonograph records, not the later Compact Discs. Today, the term includes all forms of music playback, no matter the medium.There are several types of disc jockeys...
John Peel
John Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's radio show, generated a large media buzz for the band. In a music scene dominated by corporate and video-driven acts, the Smiths' camp
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
and bookish image stood out, and many expected the band to be the breakthrough act of the UK post-punk
Post-punk
Post-punk is a rock music movement with its roots in the late 1970s, following on the heels of the initial punk rock explosion of the mid-1970s. The genre retains its roots in the punk movement but is more introverted, complex and experimental...
movement. The previous October Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood
Frankie Goes to Hollywood were a British dance-pop band popular in the mid-1980s. The group was fronted by Holly Johnson , with Paul Rutherford , Peter Gill , Mark O'Toole , and Brian Nash .The group's debut single "Relax" was banned by the BBC in 1984 while at number six in the charts and...
released their iconic track "Relax
Relax (song)
"Relax" is the debut single by British dance group Frankie Goes to Hollywood, released in the UK by ZTT Records in 1983. The song was later included on the album Welcome to the Pleasuredome ....
", which was seen as an anthem to an out
Coming out
Coming out is a figure of speech for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people's disclosure of their sexual orientation and/or gender identity....
alpha male self-assertiveness, and alien to many UK homosexuals. However, The Smiths' May 1983 debut single "Hand in Glove
Hand in Glove
"Hand in Glove" is a song by the British alternative rock band The Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. It was released as the band's first single in May 1983 on independent record label Rough Trade Records. "Hand in Glove" peaked at number three on the UK Indie Chart,...
" failed to live up to critical and commercial expectations, mostly due to its perceived low production values. When Rough Trade label mates Aztec Camera
Aztec Camera
Aztec Camera were a Scottish New Wave band from the Glasgow suburb of East Kilbride, formed in 1980 and centered around teenage singer-songwriter, Roddy Frame. Their album Love was among the nominations for Best British Album at the 1989 BRIT Awards....
began to receive day-time national radio-play with their track "Walk out to Winter", Marr admitted to "feeling a little jealous, my competitive urges kicked in". The guitarist believed The Smiths needed an up-beat song, "in a major key", in order to gain a chart positioning that would live up to expectations.
Marr wrote the music to "This Charming Man" especially for the Peel session on the same night that he wrote "Still Ill" and "Pretty Girls Make Graves". Based on the Peel performance, Rough Trade label head Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis
Geoff Travis is the founder of both Rough Trade Records and the Rough Trade chain of record shops. A former drama teacher and owner of a punk record shop, Travis founded the Rough Trade label in 1978.-Biography:...
suggested that the band release the song as a single instead of the slated release "Reel Around the Fountain", which had gathered notoriety in the press due to what were seen as lyrical references to paedophilia. The Smiths entered Matrix Studios in London on September 1983 to record a second studio version of the song for release as a single. However, the result—known as the 'London version'—was unsatisfactory and soon after, the band travelled to Strawberry Studios
Strawberry Studios
-Formation:The facility was originally called Inner City Studios and located above a music store in the town centre. In early 1968 it was bought by Peter Tattersall, a former road manager for Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas. Tattersall invited Eric Stewart – then lead guitarist and singer of...
in Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
to try again. Here, they recorded the more widely heard A-side.
Music and lyrics
The lyrics of "This Charming Man" comprise a first person narrative in which the male protagonist punctures one of his bicycle's wheels on a remote hillside. A passing "charming man" in a luxury car stops to offer the cyclist a lift, and although the protagonist is at first hesitant, after much deliberation he accepts the offer. While driving together the pair flirt, although the protagonist finds it difficult to overcome his reluctance: "I would go out tonight, but I haven't got a stitch to wear". The motorist tells the cyclist: "it's gruesome that someone so handsome should care".Morrissey deliberately used archaic language when composing the voice-over style lyrics for "This Charming Man". His use of phrases and words such as 'hillside desolate', 'stitch to wear', 'handsome' and 'charming' are used to convey a more courtly world than the mid-Eighties north of England, and evoke a style that has, in the words of the music critic Mat Snow "nothing to do with fashion". Morrissey had already used the word 'handsome' in a song title—in "Handsome Devil", the B-side to "Hand in Glove"—and observed in a 1983 interview with Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns
Barney Hoskyns is a British music critic and editor of the online music journalism archive Rock's Backpages.Hoskyns graduated from Oxford with a First Class degree in English. He began writing about music for Melody Maker and New Musical Express, quitting his job as staff writer at NME to research...
that he used the word to "try and revive some involvement with language people no longer use. In the daily scheme of things, people's language is so frighteningly limited, and if you use a word with more than 10 letters it's absolute snobbery." Snow puts forward the case that through the use of the dated word 'charming', Morrissey sought to rebel against the then mainstream gay culture from which he felt alienated. Morrissey told Hoskyns: "I hate this 'festive faggot' thing...People listen to "This Charming Man" and think no further than what anyone would presume. I hate that angle, and it's surprising that the gay press have harped on more than anyone else. I hate it when people talk to me about sex in a trivial way."
As with many of Morrissey's compositions, the song's lyrics features dialog borrowed from a cult film. The line "A jumped-up pantry boy who never knew his place" is borrowed from the 1972 film adaptation of Anthony Shaffer's 1970 homoerotic play Sleuth, in which Laurence Olivier
Laurence Olivier
Laurence Kerr Olivier, Baron Olivier, OM was an English actor, director, and producer. He was one of the most famous and revered actors of the 20th century. He married three times, to fellow actors Jill Esmond, Vivien Leigh, and Joan Plowright...
plays a cuckold
Cuckold
Cuckold is a historically derogatory term for a man who has an unfaithful wife. The word, which has been in recorded use since the 13th century, derives from the cuckoo bird, some varieties of which lay their eggs in other birds' nests...
ed author to Michael Caine
Michael Caine
Sir Michael Caine, CBE is an English actor. He won Academy Awards for best supporting actor in both Hannah and Her Sisters and The Cider House Rules ....
's 'bit of rough'.
Both studio versions begin with an introductory guitar riff
RIFF
The Resource Interchange File Format is a generic file container format for storing data in tagged chunks. It is primarily used to store multimedia such as sound and video, though it may also be used to store any arbitrary data....
, joined by the rhythm section. Morrissey's vocals are first heard eight seconds into the track. His vocal melodies are diatonic
Diatonic and chromatic
Diatonic and chromatic are terms in music theory that are most often used to characterize scales, and are also applied to intervals, chords, notes, musical styles, and kinds of harmony...
, and consciously avoid blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
inflections. The chorus
Refrain
A refrain is the line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse; the "chorus" of a song...
is played twice; the first time it is followed by a brief pause, the second by the closing of the song. The rhythm section
Rhythm section
A rhythm section is a collection of musicians who make up a section of instruments which provides the accompaniment section of the music, giving the music its rhythmic texture and pulse, also serving as a rhythmic reference for the rest of the band...
of Andy Rourke
Andy Rourke
Andy Rourke is a bass guitarist best known for being a former member of The Smiths.-Career:...
and Mike Joyce
Mike Joyce
Mike Joyce is an English drummer. He is best known as the drummer for The Smiths.-Career:...
provide a beat more danceable than usual for a Smiths track. The drums were originally programmed on a Linn Drum Computer
Linn LM-1
The LM-1 Drum Computer, manufactured by Linn Electronics Inc., was the first drum machine to use digital samples of acoustic drums. Conceived and designed by Roger Linn, it was also one of the first programmable drum machines...
, under the direction of producer John Porter
John Porter (musician)
John Porter is an English musician and record producer.-Biography:He attended St Michael's School, Allerton Grange School, King's College, and Newcastle University....
. Porter used the programme to trigger the sampled sounds of the live drum kit, featuring a Motownesque bassline
Bassline
A bassline is the term used in many styles of popular music, such as jazz, blues, funk, dub and electronic music for the low-pitched instrumental part or line played by a rhythm section instrument such as the electric bass, double bass, tuba or keyboard...
. Marr's guitar part consists of single notes of thirds as opposed to strummed bar chords, and his guitar serves to creates a counter-melody
Counter-melody
In music, counter-melody is a sequence of notes, perceived as a melody, written to be played simultaneously with a more prominent lead melody. Typically a counter-melody performs a subordinate role, and is heard in a texture consisting of a melody plus accompaniment...
throughout the song. Marr overdubbed numerous guitar parts onto the song, and in a December 1993 interview, told Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine:
- I'll try any trick. With the Smiths, I'd take this really loud TelecasterFender TelecasterThe Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
of mine, lay it on top of a Fender Twin Reverb with the vibratoVibratoVibrato is a musical effect consisting of a regular, pulsating change of pitch. It is used to add expression to vocal and instrumental music. Vibrato is typically characterised in terms of two factors: the amount of pitch variation and the speed with which the pitch is varied .-Vibrato and...
on, and tune it to an open chord. Then I'd drop a knife with a metal handle on it, hitting random strings. I used it on "This Charming Man", buried beneath about 15 tracks of guitar ... it was the first record where I used those highlifeHighlifeHighlife is a musical genre that originated in Ghana in the 1900s and spread to Sierra Leone, Nigeria and other West African countries by 1920...
-sounding runs in 3rds. I'm tuned up to F# and I finger it in G, so it comes out in A. There are about 15 tracks of guitar. People thought the main guitar part was a RickenbackerRickenbackerRickenbacker International Corporation, also known as Rickenbacker, is an electric and bass guitar manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California...
, but it's really a '54 Tele. There are three tracks of acoustic, a backwards guitar with a really long reverb, and the effect of dropping knives on the guitar – that comes in at the end of the chorus.
Reception
On release, the song received near unanimous critical praise. Paul MorleyPaul Morley
Paul Morley is an English journalist, who wrote for the New Musical Express from 1977 to 1983, during one of its most successful periods, and has since written for a wide range of publications...
of the NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
wrote, "'This Charming Man' is an accessible bliss, and seriously moving. This group fully understand that the casual is not enough... This is one of the greatest singles of the year, a poor compliment. Unique and indispensable, like 'Blue Monday
Blue Monday (New Order song)
"Blue Monday" is a single released in 1983 by British band New Order, and later remixed in 1988 and 1995. The song has been widely remixed and covered since its original release, and became a popular anthem in the dance club scene.-Background:...
' and 'Karma Chameleon
Karma Chameleon
"Karma Chameleon" is a song by British New Wave band Culture Club, featured on the group's 1983 album Colour by Numbers. The song spent three weeks at #1 on the US Billboard Hot 100 in 1984, becoming the group's biggest hit and only US #1 among their many top ten hits...
' - that's better!" A contemporary review in The Face
The Face (magazine)
The Face was a British music, fashion and culture monthly magazine started in May 1980 by Nick Logan.-1980s:Logan had previously created the teen pop magazine Smash Hits, and had been an editor at the New Musical Express in the 1970s before launching The Face in 1980.The magazine was influential in...
asked, "Where has all the wildness and daring got to? Some of it has found its way onto The Smiths' record, 'This Charming Man'. It jangles and crashes and Morrissey jumps in the middle with his mutant choir-boy voice, sounding jolly and angst-ridden at the same time. It should be given out on street corners to unsuspecting passers-by of all ages." While the band was little-known in the United States at the time, Robert Palmer of The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
described the song as "sparkling, soaring, superlative pop-rock, and proof that the guitar-band format pioneered by The Beatles
The Beatles
The Beatles were an English rock band, active throughout the 1960s and one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music. Formed in Liverpool, by 1962 the group consisted of John Lennon , Paul McCartney , George Harrison and Ringo Starr...
is still viable for groups with something to say". The following year Palmer chose the song as the second best single of 1984.
Allmusic's Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett
Ned Raggett is a library assistant, freelance writer and music journalist. His work has been published in Allmusic, the OC Weekly, Plan B, Metal Edge and The Quietus, while pieces have also appeared in Dream, Arthur, as well as Stylus, The Broken Face, Fake Jazz, Freaky Trigger, Careless Talk...
noted that "Early Elvis
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
would have approved of the music, Wilde
Oscar Wilde
Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...
of the words", and described the track as "an audacious end result by any standard". Tim DiGravina, of the same organization, wrote that "Debating the merits of the track here would be a bit pointless, as it's a classic song from one of the last great classic bands. It might as well be called 'This Charming Song'." In 2007, Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
songwriter Noel Gallagher
Noel Gallagher
Noel Thomas David Gallagher is an English musician and singer-songwriter, formerly the lead guitarist, backing vocalist and principal songwriter of the English rock band Oasis. He is currently fronting his solo project, Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds.Raised in Burnage, Manchester with his...
described the first time he heard the track: "The second I heard 'This Charming Man' everything made sense. The sound of that guitar intro was incredible. The lyrics are fuckin' amazing, too. People say Morrissey's a miserable cunt, but I knew straight away what he was on about."
During an appearance on Top of the Pops, Morrissey appeared waving gladioli
Gladiolus
Gladiolus is a genus of perennial bulbous flowering plants in the iris family...
. A 2004 BBC Radio 2 feature on the song noted that the performance was most people's introduction to The Smiths and, "therefore, to the weird, wordy world of Morrissey and the music of Johnny Marr". Uncut magazine, commentating on the nationally televised debut, wrote that "Thursday evening when Manchester's feyest first appeared on Top of the Pops would be an unexpected pivotal cultural event in the lives of a million serious English boys. His very English, camp glumness was a revolt into Sixties kitchen-sink greyness against the gaudiness of the Eighties New Wave music
New Wave music
New Wave is a subgenre of :rock music that emerged in the mid to late 1970s alongside punk rock. The term at first generally was synonymous with punk rock before being considered a genre in its own right that incorporated aspects of electronic and experimental music, mod subculture, disco and 1960s...
, as exemplified by Culture Club
Culture Club
Culture Club are a British rock band who were part of the 1980s New Romantic movement. The original band consisted of Boy George , Mikey Craig , Roy Hay and Jon Moss...
and their ilk. The Smiths' subject matter may have been 'squalid' but there was a purity of purpose about them that you messed with at your peril." Noel Gallagher said of the performance: "None of my mates liked them — they were more hooligan types. They came into work and said 'Fuckin' hell, did you see that poof on "Top of the Pops" with the bush in his back pocket?' But I thought it was life-changing."
Versions and release history
The earliest version of "This Charming Man" was recorded on 21 September 1983, in Maida Vale Studio 4, for John PeelJohn Peel
John Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
's radio programme. Produced by Roger Pusey, and assisted by Ted De Bono, this version of the song was first included on the 1984 compilation Hatful of Hollow
Hatful of Hollow
-The Smiths:* Morrissey – vocals* Johnny Marr – guitars, harmonica, mandolin* Andy Rourke – bass guitar* Mike Joyce – drums-Technical staff:* John Porter – producer* The Smiths – producers* Roger Pusey – producer* Dale "Buffin" Griffin – producer...
. On 28 October 1983, the "Manchester" version was released in the UK in 7" and 12" formats, reaching number 25 in the UK charts. The record sleeve uses a still frame from Jean Cocteau
Jean Cocteau
Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, playwright, artist and filmmaker. His circle of associates, friends and lovers included Kenneth Anger, Pablo Picasso, Jean Hugo, Jean Marais, Henri Bernstein, Marlene Dietrich, Coco Chanel, Erik Satie, María...
's 1949 film Orphée
Orphée
Orpheus is a 1950 French film directed by Jean Cocteau and starring Jean Marais. This film is the central part of Cocteau's Orphic Trilogy, which consists of The Blood of a Poet , Orpheus and Testament of Orpheus...
, featuring French actor Jean Marais
Jean Marais
-Biography:A native of Cherbourg, France, Marais starred in several movies directed by Jean Cocteau, for a time his lover, most famously Beauty and the Beast and Orphée ....
. The song was later included as a bonus track on the cassette version of the band's debut album The Smiths
The Smiths (album)
Before their debut album, single "What Difference Does It Make?" was released in January 1984. The track peaked at number 12 on the UK Singles Chart. Released in February 1984, The Smiths debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart....
in the UK, and subsequently on all American versions.
Following the 1989 bankruptcy of Rough Trade, WEA Records
Warner Music Group
Warner Music Group is the third largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry, making it one of the big four record companies...
purchased The Smiths' back catalogue. In 1992 WEA re-issued the band's catalogue, and all subsequent pressings of The Smiths have incorporated "This Charming Man". WEA re-released the single itself in 1992 to support the Best...I compilation album
Compilation album
A compilation album is an album featuring tracks from one or more performers, often culled from a variety of sources The tracks are usually collected according to a common characteristic, such as popularity, genre, source or subject matter...
. The reissued single reached number eight on the British singles chart, the band's highest chart placing.
In December 1983, DJ François Kevorkian
François Kevorkian
François Kevorkian, alias François K, is a French DJ of Armenian origin, remixer, producer and record label owner. Having started his career in renowned clubs such as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54, the New York City resident is widely considered as one of the forefathers of house...
released a "New York" mix of the single on Megadisc records. Kevorkian geared the song for nightclub
Nightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
dancefloors, and the track was intended to be pressed in limited numbers for New York club DJs. However, Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis liked the mix and gave the release wide distribution in the UK. Morrissey publicly disowned the mix, and urged fans not to purchase copies. Travis later claimed, "it was my idea, but they agreed. They said 'Go ahead', then didn't like it so it was withdrawn." He also said, "Nothing that ever happened in The Smiths occurred without Morrissey's guidance; there's not one Smiths record that went out that Morrissey didn't ask to do, so there's nothing on my conscience."
Two music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
s were made for "This Charming Man". The first was filmed by the British television show The Tube
The Tube (TV series)
The Tube was an innovative United Kingdom pop/rock music television programme, which ran for five seasons, from 5 November 1982 until 1987...
, and features the band playing the song in an empty room. The second is from an appearance on the Riverside
Riverside (music venue)
Riverside was a music venue in Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom which ran between 1985 and 1999. It is the subject of a book, by Hazel Plater and Carl Taylor, published by Tonto Books on 6 October 2011.The venue was significant for a number of reasons:...
television programme, and shows the band playing the song in a room with a floor covered by flowers.
"This Charming Man" has been covered numerous times by a variety of artists in a number of genres. Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie
Death Cab for Cutie is an American alternative rock band formed in Bellingham, Washington in 1997. The band consists of Ben Gibbard , Chris Walla , Nick Harmer and Jason McGerr ....
covered the track for their 1997 demo You Can Play These Songs With Chords
You Can Play these Songs with Chords
You Can Play These Songs with Chords is an early demo from the rock band Death Cab for Cutie, which at the time consisted entirely of founder Ben Gibbard...
. In 2001, Canadian indie pop
Indie pop
Indie pop is a genre of alternative rock music that originated in the United Kingdom in the mid 1980s, with its roots in the Scottish post-punk bands on the Postcard Records label in the early '80s, such as Orange Juice, Josef K and Aztec Camera, and the dominant UK independent band of the mid...
outfit Stars released their own take on the song on their A Lot of Little Lies for the Sake of One Big Truth
A Lot of Little Lies For the Sake of One Big Truth
A Lot of Little Lies for the Sake of One Big Truth is an EP by the Canadian indie rock band Stars, released in 2001 on Le Grand Magistery Records....
EP.
Track listing
Personnel
- MorrisseyMorrisseySteven Patrick Morrissey , known as Morrissey, is an English singer and lyricist. He rose to prominence in the 1980s as the lyricist and vocalist of the alternative rock band The Smiths. The band was highly successful in the United Kingdom but broke up in 1987, and Morrissey began a solo career,...
– lead vocalsLead vocalistThe lead vocalist is the member of a band who sings the main vocal portions of a song. They may also play one or more instruments. Lead vocalists are sometimes referred to as the frontman or frontwoman, and as such, are usually considered to be the "leader" of the groups they perform in, often the... - Johnny MarrJohnny MarrJohnny Marr is an English musician and songwriter. Marr rose to fame in the 1980s as the guitarist in The Smiths, with whom he formed a prolific songwriting partnership with Morrissey. Marr has been a member of Electronic, The The, and Modest Mouse...
– electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker... - Andy RourkeAndy RourkeAndy Rourke is a bass guitarist best known for being a former member of The Smiths.-Career:...
– bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick.... - Mike JoyceMike JoyceMike Joyce is an English drummer. He is best known as the drummer for The Smiths.-Career:...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
Chart positions
| Chart (1983) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
25 |
| UK Indie Chart UK Indie Chart The UK Independent Chart or Indie Chart is a chart of the best-selling independent record releases in the UK.- History :In the wake of punk, small record labels began to spring up, as an outlet for artists that were unwilling to sign contracts with major record companies, or were not considered... |
1 |
| Chart (1992) | Peak position |
| UK Singles Chart | 8 |
External links
- http://www.nme.com/video/id/kGnjrTkv1gs/search/The+SmithsMusic video from NME.comNMEThe New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
] - The Smiths discography from discogs.com