Their discussion turned to the early recordings of Elvis Presley, which led to an impromptu jam session of the song ' That's All Right'. After a night out celebrating the session for 'William, It Was Really Nothing' and 'Please Please Please Let Me Get What I Want', the trio had reconvened the following afternoon to record what became 'How Soon Is Now?' Porter was impressed by the basic riff Marr showed him, but felt the song needed something else. Marr recorded the song with bandmates Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce that July at London's Jam Studios. In contrast to the frequent chord changes he had employed in most Smiths' songs, Marr wanted to explore building a song around a single chord (in this case, F ♯) as much as possible, which also appealed to producer John Porter. Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr wrote 'How Soon Is Now?' along with ' William, It Was Really Nothing' and ' Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want' during a four-day period at Earl's Court in London in June 1984.

The complete version is generally used on compilations.Ī cover of the song by Love Spit Love was used in the soundtrack for the 1996 film The Craft and later appeared as the theme song of the television series Charmed for eight seasons. The original track runs for nearly seven minutes the 7-inch single edit cut the length down to under four minutes. Most commentators put this down to the fact that the song had been out on vinyl in a number of forms before being released as a single in its own right. Although a club favourite, it did not chart as well as expected. It's most people's favourite, I think.' Despite its prominent place in the Smiths' repertoire, it is not generally considered to be representative of the band's style. In 2007, Marr said 'How Soon Is Now?' is 'possibly most enduring record. Belatedly released as a single in the UK in 1985, it reached No. Originally a B-side of the 1984 single ' William, It Was Really Nothing', 'How Soon Is Now?' was subsequently featured on the compilation album Hatful of Hollow and on US, Canadian, Australian, and Warner UK editions of Meat Is Murder.

' How Soon Is Now?' is a song by English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr.

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