Sheila Take A Bow
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)

UK 7" [Rough Trade RT196]
Australia 7" [CBS 650758-7]
Europe/Germany 7" [Line 109073 (black vinyl)]
Germany 7" [Line LIS1.00024B (grey, white or yellow vinyl)]
Sweden 7" [MNW RT196]

Sheila Take A Bow
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)
Sweet And Tender Hooligan (Peel session 17/12/86)

UK 12" [Rough Trade RTT196]
Australia 12" [CBS 650758-6]
Europe/Germany 12" [Line 609073 (black vinyl, blue cover)]
Germany 12" [Line LIEP3.00011E (white or green vinyl)]
Spain 12" [Nuevos Medios 41-258M]
Sweden 12" [MNW RTT196]

Sheila Take A Bow
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)
Sweet And Tender Hooligan (Peel session 17/12/86)

Greece 12" [Virgin VG2086-Z]

Sheila Take A Bow
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)
Sweet And Tender Hooligan (Peel session 17/12/86)
Shoplifters Of The World Unite
Half A Person
Panic
London

Germany CD5 [Line LICD9.00308L]

Artwork information:
Candy Darling from the film "Women In Revolt" (1971). Candy Darling is actually a drag queen named James Lawrence Slattery. The cover is usually deep reddish pink except in Germany where it is lighter pink. Very early German 12"s are light blue.

Etchings on vinyl:
UK 7" and 12": COOK BERNARD MATTHEWS / none
Bernard Matthews was a poultry farmer.

Additional release date information:
UK: 13 April 1987

Chart peak information:
UK: 10

Promotion:
UK: White label editions of the 12" format were mainly used for promotion. While the labels on them were sometimes really white, in most cases they were light pink. The records were usually slipped inside a custom black die-cut sleeve. White label 7"s were also distributed in a stock sleeve with plugger sticker, but these served more limited promotional purposes. Stock 7"s and 12"s were also dispatched for promotion, each with a different press release.

Australia: Stock copies of the 7" format with a stamped "promotion only not for sale" warning on the back of the sleeve were used for promotion of this single.

Germany: The white vinyl edition of the 7" was dispatched to media with an Ariola 'Single Facts' sheet.

Quotes

Do you have a particular Camp Hall of Fame or heroes?
"Yes I do. Candy Darling, she was the cover of 'Sheila Take A Bow'. To be able to inflict Candy Darling on the record buying public was a perfect example of my very dangerous sense of humour."
- Morrissey, NME, 25 February 1989

Reviews

"An adequate rather than a particularly inspired Smiths single that still shreds the rest of the week's pop dross. With Candy Darling on the cover, this is, as always, the sleeve of the week."
- Donald McRae, New Musical Express, 18 April 1987

"...their poorest seven-inch to date."
- Danny Kelly, NME

"Not their finest hour, though it can hardly be described as dull."
- Dylan Jones, i-D