1. Production

2. Artwork and packaging

3. Promotion

4. Release

5. Legacy

6. Track listing

7. Personnel

8. Charts

9. References

10. External links

• Pluto, Manchester
• Eden, London
• Matrix, London
• Strawberry, Manchester

• Alternative rock^[1]
• indie rock^[2]
• post-punk^[3]

• Rough Trade
• Sire

The Smiths is the debut studio album by English rock band the Smiths, recorded in 1983 and released on 20 February 1984 by record label Rough Trade. After the original production by Troy Tate was felt to be inadequate, John Porter re-recorded the album in London, Manchester and Stockport during breaks in the band's UK tour during September 1983.

The album was well received by the critics as well as the public; it reached number two on the UK Albums Chart and stayed on the chart for 33 weeks. It established the Smiths as a prominent band in the 1980s music scene in the United Kingdom.

Production

After signing with independent record label Rough Trade, the Smiths began preparations to record their first album in mid 1983. Due to the suggestion of Rough Trade head Geoff Travis, the band selected Troy Tate (former guitarist of The Teardrop Explodes) as producer for sessions at Elephant studios in Wapping.{{sfn|Goddard|p=34}} During the following month the group recorded fourteen songs.{{sfn|Goddard|p=35}}

Guitarist Johnny Marr would later write in his autobiography that he "liked Troy...Troy's vision was to capture the way the band sounded live. He thought it was important that the record represented the way we were in the clubs and was an authentic document. He worked pretty tirelessly to get passion from a performance and was very nurturing with me..." However the sessions would also prove to be arduous due to an ongoing heatwave in London. The Smiths were recording in a hot basement studio at Elephant, and according to Marr, not only was the heat uncomfortable but it made it difficult to keep their instruments in tune.{{sfn|Marr|p=174}}

While recording a BBC session for Dave Jensen in August 1983, the Smiths met producer John Porter, who was working in one of the studios. Travis, harbouring reservations about the group's session with Troy Tate, gave Porter a cassette of the sessions beforehand in the hopes that he could remix them. Porter told Travis that the sessions were "out of tune and out of time". Feeling the Tate sessions were unsalvageable, Porter offered to re-record the album himself. Despite praising the work with Tate only a week prior to the press by stating "we've done everything exactly right and it'll show", Smiths singer Morrissey accepted (as did Travis), while Marr hesitantly agreed.{{sfn|Goddard|p=35}} Marr would later claim in his autobiography that when the band heard the finished work done under Tate, Morrissey didn't like the album and the others weren't entirely happy with the results either. "I could hear myself that the mixes sounded underproduced and were not the finished article that we needed as our introduction to the world," Marr wrote. "Why it was deemed necessary to scrap the album entirely rather than just mix it again I didn't know, but I wasn't going to make too much of it...it was a document of how the band really were at that point though..."{{sfn|Marr|p=175}}

The Smiths began work with Porter in September 1983. Due to tour commitments, the band had to make the record in a piecemeal fashion. Marr later recalled that "working with John immediately got us results...he and I formed a musical and personal relationship that was inspiring...he nurtured not just me but all the band." Recording started at London's Matrix Studios, with the majority of the work undertaken during a week's stay at Pluto, just outside Manchester. A final overdub session was performed at Eden Studios in London that November.{{sfn|Goddard|p=46}} After listening to a finished mix of the album the following month, Morrissey told Porter and Travis that the album "wasn't good enough". However, the singer said that due to the album's cost of 6,000 pounds, "[they said] it has to be released, there's no going back".{{sfn|Goddard|p=87}}

Artwork and packaging

The sleeve for The Smiths was designed by Morrissey. It features American actor Joe Dallesandro in a cropped still from Andy Warhol's 1968 film Flesh. The photograph of Morrissey on the original card inner sleeve was taken at an early London concert by Romi Mori, who would subsequently play bass guitar for The Gun Club.

Promotion

The single "What Difference Does It Make?" was released in January 1984, reaching number 12 on the UK Singles Chart.{{sfn|Goddard|p=81}}

Release

The album was released on 20 February 1984, and debuted at number two on the UK Albums Chart.{{sfn|Goddard|p=87}}

"This Charming Man" was included as the sixth track on all original US releases of the album on Sire Records (LP, CD and cassette) and on the UK cassette on Rough Trade. Since 1992, when WEA acquired the Smiths' catalogue, nearly all reissues worldwide also include this song, with the exceptions being a 2009 vinyl reissue on Rhino Records in both the USA and the UK and the 2011 vinyl version box set collecting the Smiths albums titled "Complete".

Legacy

The music critic Garry Mulholland included it in his list of the 261 greatest albums since 1976 in Fear of Music: "The Smiths made safe their early legend with a debut album about child abuse. The production was flat and dour, yet it succeeded in conjuring yet another Manchester-in-song, distinctly different from that of Ian Curtis and Mark E. Smith. But everything about The Smiths ran contrary to mid-80s pop, from Joe Dallesandro on the cover to the restrained jangling of the songs, but mainly through Moz's [Morrissey's nickname] dramatised disgust at sex, which here exists to ruin true love at best, and to ruin an entire young life at worst."^[14]

In 1989, the album was ranked number 22 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 100 greatest albums of the 1980s.^[16] In 2003, the album was ranked number 481 on that magazine's list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.^[17] The album ranked at 473 on an updated list by the magazine in 2012. The album was ranked number 51 on Rolling Stone{{'}}s list of the 100 Best Debut Albums of All Time.^[18] It placed at number 73 in The Guardian{{'}}s list "100 Best Albums Ever" in 1997.^[19]

Track listing

Personnel

• Morrissey – vocals
• Johnny Marr – guitars, harmonica
• Andy Rourke – bass guitar
• Mike Joyce – drums, tambourine {{small|("Hand in Glove")}}^[20]

• Paul Carrack – piano, organ {{small|("Reel Around the Fountain", "You've Got Everything Now" and "I Don't Owe You Anything")}}
• Annalisa Jablonska – female voice {{small|("Pretty Girls Make Graves" and "Suffer Little Children")}}

• John Porter – production {{small|(except "Hand in Glove")}}, remixing {{small|("Hand in Glove")}}
• The Smiths – production {{small|("Hand in Glove")}}
• Phil Bush – engineering
• Neill King – engineering

• Morrissey – sleeve
• Caryn Gough – layout

Charts

References

• {{cite book |last=Goddard |first=Simon |title=The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life |publisher=Reynolds & Hern Ltd. |year=2003 |isbn=1-903111-47-1 |ref=harv}}
• {{cite book |last=Marr |first=Johnny |title=Set the Boy Free: The Autobiography |publisher= Dey Street Books |year=2016 |isbn= 978-0062438690 |ref=harv}}

External links

• {{Discogs master|4264|The Smiths}}
• The Smiths{{Dead link|date=June 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=no }} (Adobe Flash) at Radio3Net (streamed copy where licensed)

• Bennett Buggy
• Bennett buggy
• Bennett Campbell
• Bennett Cerf
• Bennett, CO
• Bennett College
• Bennett, Colorado
• Bennett County
• Bennett County, SD
• Bennett County, South Dakota
• Bennett Environmental
• Bennett Funding Group
• Bennettia
• Bennett, IA
• Bennett, Iowa
• Bennett Island
• Bennettitales
• Bennettites
• Bennett Johnston
• Bennett Johnston Jr
• Bennett Lake
• Bennett Lewis
• Bennett Park (Detroit)
• Bennett Park (New York City)
• Bennett Place