40 Years Ago Today: The Smiths
Morrissey, Marr, Joyce, and Rourke made their long-playing debut on February 20, 1984
40 years ago today, February 20, 1984, The Smiths released their self-titled debut album. Barely seven weeks into the year, it was already 1984’s most anticipated long-player. The Manchester band’s first three singles, “Hand In Glove,” “This Charming Man,” and “What Difference Does It Make?,” had made the leap from the indie charts to the mainstream thanks primarily to a pair of appearances on the BBC’s venerable Top of the Pops chart show.
It genuinely cannot be overstated how different The Smiths seemed to a mainstream pop audience at the time. They were hardly the only indie guitar band in the U.K., of course — their labelmates Aztec Camera had already charted in the Top 20 with “Oblivious” just a few months before — but The Smiths stood apart.
Naturally, the sound was a huge part of it. Johnny Marr’s blend of ’60s pop, post-punk energy, and pealing overtones — sort of a British version of what Peter Buck was doing in R.E.M. at the…
