Months or years ago, I was watching someone react to this song on his channel, when he paused it to point out a criticism about what he was hearing. Then he hits play and resumes listening, and we hear: "YOU SHUT YOUR MOUTH, HOW CAN YOU SAY, I GO ABOUT THINGS THE WRONG WAY......" Awesome.

An absolute classic Smiths track, one of their best: the beat, guitar work (rhythm and effects) and Morrisey’s lyrics and vocal delivery are spot on.

an anthem to my youth! a masterpiece on all aspects! and a song that can make me cry in a moment.

Originally a b-side (a B-Side!!!), then collected on the Hatful Of Hollow collection, then released as a single in 1985, and again in 1992. What a song! Certainly one of their best known tracks. I see it as a prequel to I Know It's Over. It's about crippling shyness, and how that hinders you in forming relationships, how people who don't suffer from it tell you what you should be doing to find a partner not understanding how difficult it is for you - go to that club, you could meet someone who really loves you. "So you go and you stand on your own, and you leave on your own, and you go home and you cry and you want to die". Relatable for so many people! Morrissey was so good at describing those feelings and situations, probably because he had gone through them himself.

Its even more better on headphones. Great reaction The Smiths are my favourite band

Matt loving your deep dive into The smiths! So hoping you'll dive into Morrissey's solo work, such a catalogue, you gotta do it!

This is my favourite Smiths song. The parts of the song that you describe as the most prominent in memory, are what was used for the opening titles for the TV show 'Charmed' (albeit a cover version) so that may have been on in the background in your teen years.

If my memory serves me right it was originally released in the summer of 1984. I clearly remember buying the 12 inch of William, It Was Really Nothing. Please, Please,Please,Let Me Get What I Want was the b side on the 7 inch and this was added to the 12 inch. It seems extraordinary that Rough Trade had such a low option of it to limit its release to the 12 inch only. Not that I minded, three such brilliant songs that work well together. It got a lot of late night radio and club play. It was belatedly released as a single and eventually nailed on to much later versions of Meat Is Murder. It’s odd that non Smiths fans generally know this song more than others, and many people regard it as their best work. Whichever way you look at it, it a stunning song.

A cover version of the song was used in a film (the craft) and the theme for a TV series (charmed) and made the song popular with fans of the show in the 90s.

"How Soon Is Now?" is so big and important to music history that I could probably write a lot about it, but I'm going to reel it in to two main points. 1. There is a KZfaq channel called Produce Like a Pro where he explains how "How Soon Is Now?" came into existence from Johnny Marr's influences to the recording technique. The video is about 16 minutes long and infinitely fascinating. When you mentioned that it sounds like there are synths, it's possible that's because of how they achieved the effect in the first place. They're running the guitar through such a heavy tremolo that they had to switch intermittently between amps to keep the tremolo effect from going out of sync and turning to sonic sludge. 2. A couple of people mentioned the cover that was the theme for the TV show "Charmed." That cover was done by a group called Love Spit Love which was a side project of Psychedelic Furs singer, Richard Butler, while the Furs were on hiatus.

Actually, the whole hatful of hollow came out before the queen is deas, it has many tracks that didnt appear on any of the studio albums

This one and Please Let Me Get What I Want are classic songs

Hmmm, I might be losing my memory, but I am sure that I have a load of non album tracks in the folder......

The only Smiths song I ever liked.