This song must have been written at some point in 1990. It was likely (to be confirmed) recorded during the "Sing Your Life" single b-sides session in the first few months of 1991 at Westside Studios in Hammersmith (which actually ended up supplying none of the material featured on the latter single). This was Morrissey's last collaboration with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley, and musicians Mark Nevin (guitar), Mark "Bedders" Bedford (bass) and Andrew Paresi (drums). Alain Whyte, Boz Boorer, Gary Day and Spencer Cobrin are credited on the single as having played on this song, but they did not.

There is a slight chance that the song may have been recorded at bit earlier, in December 1990 at Hook End Manor with producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley alongside other material that was meant to appear on a planned rockabilly mini-album. Those plans were shelved, some of the material recorded during this session was mixed and released on subsequent singles, while some wasn't. Musicians for this session were Boz Boorer (guitar), Mark Nevin (guitar), Jonny Bridgwood (double-bass) and Andrew Paresi (drums).

UK version {3:42}

• "My Love Life" single, all formats, except in the USA

• The Centenary Edition of the "Viva Hate" album

• "The HMV/Parlophone Singles '88-'95" album

• "Very Best Of Morrissey" [remastered 2011]

USA version {3:14}

• USA "My Love Life" single, all formats

• "My Early Burglary Years" album

Tonight With Jonathan Ross 10 December 1990 [tv] {3:29}

• "Very Best Of Morrissey" DVD

Because it took two decades to give this television performance an official release, this is commonly found on bootleg video compilations of Morrissey television appearances, obviously in inferior quality than on the official release given here. The audio is commonly found in good quality on various manufactured bootlegs as well as in digital format on the internet.

The song has been done in concert 65 times by Morrissey, perhaps even 66 times when taking into account the missing information about one setlist from the era. Morrissey sang it 14 times on the 1991 Kill Uncle tour, perhaps even 15 times, on-and-off in batches of 3-4 consecutive performances separated by long breaks. He pulled the song out of the vaults at the tail end of the Tour Of The Tormentors MMVI and did it on the 23 dates following its re-introduction in mid-November 2006. The song was played intensively at the beginning of the subsequent Greatest Hits tour in 2007, then less and less until the middle of July when it was retired, for a total of 28 airings.

live London 4 October 1991 {3:14}

• 12" and cd-single of "We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful"

• "The Loop", a French giveaway cd-EP

• "The HMV/Parlophone Singles '88-'95" album

No demos or studio outtakes of this song have leaked to the general public at this point in time.

Quotes

In a 1998 interview to KCXX radio in California, Morrissey said of this song "Well, sometimes there's no point pretending that you're innocent and so forth. You may as well just jump off the cliff and say, 'I'm guilty'."