The Queen Is Dead Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
from the 1964 film L'insoumis.]]The Queen Is Dead is an album by The Smiths. It was released on June 16, 1986 by their U.K record company, Rough Trade, and reached No. 2 in the British charts. Their U.S record company released the album on June 23, 1986. The album reached No. 71 on the Billboard 200.
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2 Track listing 3 People involved |
About the album
After releasing their September 1985 single, "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" (which was included on The Queen Is Dead in an updated, partly re-recorded version), The Smiths turned to recording their third album. Pressure was high on the band to produce an album that met the high expectations within the press and the fan base, and especially Johnny Marr worked day and night in the studio recording and producing the music. The band wanted to release the album as soon as possible, but relations with their record company, Rough Trade, were not at their best at the time. In early 1986, all communications broke down and the album's release was postponed.
The Queen Is Dead, produced by Morrissey and Marr with Stephen Street engineering, finally emerged half a year late, in June 1986, and was previewed by the May single release of "Bigmouth Strikes Again", strictly speaking the only single taken from the album. It did not fare as well as expected, stalling at No. 26 on the British charts.
The song "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out", widely seen as the epitome of The Smiths, was a contender for lead single off the album, but was passed over in favour of "Bigmouth Strikes Again". It received a belated release of its own in 1992, when it became one of WEA's singles in its programme to promote its Smiths re-releases (see the entry on ...Best II).
The Queen Is Dead is popularly regarded as their best. With its unique blend of musical styles from the past fifteen years, including jangle pop, British Invasion, mod, rockabilly and punk rock, it quickly became a British sensation and established The Smiths as one of the biggest bands of its era. Both Morrissey and Marr disagree, however, citing its 1987 successor (and final Smiths LP), Strangeways, Here We Come, as their peak.
Track listing
Side A
Side B
People involved
All songs written and produced by Morrissey/Marr except "Take Me Back To Dear Old Blighty" written by Mills/Godfrey-Scott. Engineered by Stephen Street except "Frankly Mr. Shankly" engineered by John Porter.
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