Accidentally extraordinary: The Smiths’ five best B-sides
In many ways, The Smiths reinvented what it meant to create a powerful B-side. While these are commonly and perhaps wrongly misconstrued as the songs that weren’t as good as the ones saved for main releases, some B-sides hold their own unique quality, ushered aside as gems waiting to be discovered and cherished, sometimes more than their A-sides.
Still, The Smiths achieved a seemingly rare feat with their own selection of second bests, with B-sides that often lived up to or surpassed the quality of the main tracklists and singles. For instance, Morrissey once said he felt “sad” about the choice to “hide” ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ on a B-side, saying that the choice to do so “was sinful”.
However, these decisions—to pack away some of their best songs on the alternate side of a release—often proved more about their unwavering commitment to artistic excellence than any other conspicuous approach, with songs that became popular as a standalone and withstood the test of time. Plus, this isn’t just something the band achieved once; many of their best songs were B-sides, which in turn forced their peers to reconsider the importance of extra material and its potential to enrich their discography.
Moreover, the thing about The Smiths’ B-sides wasn’t just that they were great spares. Many also offered extensive stories and narratives, showcasing Morrissey’s penchant for unmatched poetic lyricism and Johnny Marr’s ability to enhance any atmosphere with the beauty of his guitar playing. As a result, these weren’t just experimental maybes; these were fully refined magic-ramblings of genius minds that became anything but background.
The five best Smiths B-sides:
‘Suffer Little Children’
Released as the B-side to ‘Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now’, ‘Suffer Little Children’ feels almost like its distant cousin, with a similar pacing and emotional pull that makes it difficult to decipher whether the band requests sentimentality or unease. In the end, it’s a mix of both, trailing off the tragic and disturbing stories of the Moors murders that took place in the 1960s.
More than just a contemporary murder ballad, ‘Suffer Little Children’ was one Morrissey and Marr initially discarded, though it’s difficult to suggest whether this was due to its controversial subject matter, especially considering how the pair rarely shied away from such provocation in any of their material within the band. Still, it’s an exceptionally executed song, one that coasts the line between intricacy and darkness with a sensitivity that feels especially prominent despite its directness.
‘Cemetry Gates’
Another rife with references and satirical layering, ‘Cemetry Gates’ has become a beloved classic for many, mainly as it showcases all aspects of The Smiths’ appeal, from Morrissey’s richly placed lyricism to Marr’s gritty yet jaunty guitar arrangement. There’s also something inexplicably charming about the song’s appeal that keeps you coming back, making it shine brighter than what would usually qualify for a mere B-side.
One of the best parts of the song is when Morrissey appears to poke fun at himself, criticising the lack of originality among most of his contemporaries while doing the exact thing he sets out to break down. Plagiarism, to Morrissey, is the ultimate red flag and a complete no-go, but something he also incidentally coasts within the song, likely noting that, while inauthenticity is unappealing, repurposing the greats is unavoidable.
‘Back To The Old House’
A nostalgic and wistful song about people and homes lost to the past, ‘Back To The Old House’ exudes all the signature Smiths-esque charm you might expect, with an inexplicable grandeur that feels as overwhelming as pining itself. For many, ‘Back To The Old House’ represents a myriad of emotions and experiences, mainly relating to the past, and how, no matter our connections to it—good, tragic, happy, joyful—we’ll always come back to its flawed walls.
These are the precise moments that The Smiths exploded with effortless ease. Rather than focusing on all of the other intricacies that made the band great, this song seemingly flies from nowhere like a hot air balloon in a storm, destroying all in its path with a feverish angst that feels both satisfying and heartbreaking. It’s a lightning rod, but one that we can’t get enough of, even when its hooks feel too painful to endure.
‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’
The most telling thing about ‘Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want’ is that it’s the more popular half of its A-side, ‘William, It Was Really Nothing’, released alongside the equally enticing smash, ‘How Soon Is Now?’ At first, there were many reasons why they didn’t consider the song to be a worthy A-side, and one was its short length.
It also opposed the A-side in the sense that it was deliberately written with a different tone and time signature, making it more of a risky sell among mainstream audiences. Those who heard it before its release weren’t sure what to make of it, but listeners quickly attached themselves to it, more so than the song intended to be the main event. According to Marr, the song was written as a means of evoking a “sense of yearning”, which was a typical Smiths approach, but with a contrasting upbeat rhythm that also became their staple.
‘How Soon Is Now?’
The quintessential Smiths B-side, ‘How Soon Is Now?’ not only became one of the band’s defining songs but also revealed a deeper nuance in their artistic expression that they hadn’t anticipated. Its slow rise to mainstream popularity was also as organic as it could possibly have been, after having been released in several formats before enjoying a resurgence as a single much later.
Despite the consensus that ‘How Soon Is Now?’ doesn’t really accurately represent The Smiths’ appeal or style, there are several components that point to the opposite. For starters, its heady arrangement makes it feel as though it could take any twist or turn, alluding to a broader artistic hypnoticism that became the band’s familiar style. On top of this, it genuinely feels timeless and unburdened from its own time period, like an atmosphere that can sweep you away at any time, in any place.
