The music was written by Johnny late in the summer of 1985, at the same time as the music of "Frankly, Mr Shankly" and "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out". This instrumental-only composition was recorded in September 1985 at RAK Studios in London in the initial sessions for the upcoming "The Queen Is Dead" album.

Lyrics were added by Morrissey and vocal versions of the song were recorded at Jacobs Studios in Farnham (Surrey) in October/November 1985 during the main "The Queen Is Dead" sessions. Morrissey and Johnny produced the recording, with Stephen Street as recording engineer.

album version {5:48}

• "The Queen Is Dead" album

• UK cd-single#2 re-release of "How Soon Is Now?"

• "The Very Best Of The Smiths" [remastered 2001]

This song has never been performed specifically for radio or television.

The song has been performed live 29 times by the Smiths, possibly 30 times when taking into account the number of unknown setlists from the early Smiths days. All performances are from 1986. It was played at every British show on the Queen Is Dead tour with the exception of the final one-off concert at Brixton Academy, and on a majority of dates on the North American leg of that tour.

live Kilburn 23 October 1986 {7:47}

• "Rank" (live album)

Morrissey pulled the song out of the vaults in 2011 and it has been done 96 times by him since. It was done 41 times out of 47 concerts that first year, then 48 times out of 56 in 2012, then 7 times out of 15 dates in 2013.

studio outtake {5:52}

Taken from a record company cd-r of a scrapped reissue project, this has not yet leaked on bootlegs.