This song was written in late August/early September 1983. It was first professionally recorded on 14 September 1983 for the band's second appearance on John Peel's BBC programme (first broadcast on 21 September 1983), with producer Roger Pusey.

It was recorded again by the band during the July 1984 sessions at Jam Studios in London with producer John Porter, alongside material that would soon after be released on the "William, It Was Really Nothing" single. Early versions of "Rusholme Ruffians" and "Nowhere Fast" were also recorded during this session, the latter song tentatively planned as the follow-up single, with "Rusholme Ruffians" and "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" as potential b-sides. These plans were shelved, the two other songs would end up being re-recorded for the "Meat Is Murder" album, but this studio version of "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" remains unreleased to this day (although it has leaked on bootlegs, see below).

The only officially released studio version of this song is the John Peel session listed below. The version recorded by the band for eventual release on a single is only available on the bootleg listed at the bottom of this page.

John Peel radio session 21 September 1983 {3:40}

• "Hatful Of Hollow" album

• "Louder Than Bombs" album

• Australia "The World Won't Listen" double LP and double cassette

Y.E.S. 6 February 1984 [tv]

This 2-song performance (including "What Difference Does It Make?") is circulated on video bootlegs. The audio is commonly found in good quality on various manufactured bootlegs as well as in digital format on the internet..

This song has been done in concert at least 50 times by the Smiths, possibly even up to 61 times if we take into account that information is missing for many early concerts. It was introduced in the band's set in mid-October 1983 and was played at most if not all of the remaining dates that year which preceded their first proper tour (10 confirmed performances in 1983, but possibly as many as 16). It was done a further 37 times, perhaps even 42 times, on the 1984 tour promoting the debut album. It was rarely, perhaps never taken off the setlist that year until the tour reached Finland in early June. It was subsequently dropped until it returned in November for two airings whilst promoting the release of "Hatful Of Hollow". It was absent from the set on the 1985 Meat Is Murder tour and the 1986 Queen Is Dead tour and was last heard at the band's final concert, a one-off affair on 12 December 1986.

There are no officially released live recordings of the song at this point in time, but bootleg recordings are circulated.

studio version aka demo {3:17}

Taken from a record company cd-r of a scrapped reissue project, this was leaked at the end of 2010 on the rarities LP bootleg simply titled "The Smiths".