Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"
Single by The Smiths
from the album Hatful of Hollow
B-side	"Suffer Little Children" "Girl Afraid"
Released	21 May 1984 (1984-05-21) (CD single: 28 November 1988)
Format	7" vinyl, 12" vinyl, CD
Recorded	March 1984 (1984-03) Fallout Shelter, Hammersmith, London
Genre	Alternative rock, indie pop, indie rock
Length	3:35
Label	Rough Trade
Writer(s)	Johnny Marr Morrissey
Producer	John Porter
The Smiths singles chronology
"What Difference Does It Make?" (1984) "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" (1984) "William, It Was Really Nothing" (1984)

"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" is a single by The Smiths that reached #10 on the UK Singles Chart in June 1984 before its inclusion on the compilation album, Hatful of Hollow. It is listed as one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.

Background

The song is notable for marking the beginning of producer Stephen Street's working relationship with the band. As one of his first roles as "in-house engineer" at Island Records' Fallout Shelter studios, Street engineered the session. He was well aware of the band and excited by the prospect, saying in a HitQuarters interview, "I’d seen them just shortly beforehand on Top Of The Pops doing ‘This Charming Man’, and like most other people around that time who were into music I was really excited by them." Street says his enthusiasm must have rubbed off on Morrissey and Johnny Marr because they would take his name and number. Although not contacted for the subsequent recording "William, It Was Really Nothing", he was asked to engineer their next album, Meat Is Murder, with Morrissey and Marr producing for the first time.

The cover features Viv Nicholson who became famous in 1961 in the UK for winning a large amount of money on the Football Pools. The song's title was inspired by Sandie Shaw's "Heaven Knows I'm Missing Him Now".

The single was the subject of some controversy upon its release due to its B-side, "Suffer Little Children", which is about the Moors murders between 1963 and 1965.

The band's performance of the song on Channel 4's Earsay on 31 March 1984 features mixed footage of the band playing in a studio and footage of Morrissey walking around some wasteland in Manchester, holding gladioli flowers in his hands and back pocket of his trousers.

Trivia

• The journalist Andrew Collins borrowed the song's title for the name of his autobiographical book, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now: My Difficult Student 80s, published in 2004.
• The song was covered in 1988 by Act as a bonus track of the 12" single "I Can't Escape from You" and the CD version of the album Laughter, Tears and Rage, featuring scat singing from "Lucky" Gordon, infamous for his role in the Profumo affair.
• Jeremy Hardy famously attempted a rendition of the song on comedy panel show I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue.
• Gary Sparrow, the protagonist from the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart made an effort to sing the song in the episode London Pride from season 5, accompanied by piano-playing, although it was not well received by Phoebe.As with a running gag in the series, Gary passes the song off as his own creation.

Track listing

7" RT156
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now"	3:34
2.	"Suffer Little Children"	5:27

• in original green sleeve

12" RTT156/CD RTT156CD
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now (Extended)"	3:46
2.	"Girl Afraid"	2:46
3.	"Suffer Little Children"	5:27

Etchings on vinyl

UK 7": SMITHS INDEED / ILL FOREVER
UK 12": SMITHS PRESUMABLY / FOREVER ILL

Chart performance

Chart (1984)	Peak position
UK Singles Chart	10
Irish Singles Chart	11