"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr. First released on the group's 1987 album Strangeways, Here We Come, it was later featured on the compilation albums Stop Me and The Very Best of The Smiths. The song is also included in the music video game Rock Band 3.[1]
Like many other songs written by Morrissey, the song deals with issues of trust, relationship burnout, and alcohol abuse.[2]
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" was originally intended to be released as a single instead of "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish". However, the song contained the lyric "plan a mass murder" and it was banned from daytime airplay by the BBC due to the then-recent Hungerford massacre. Thus, the band decided not to release it in the UK; it was released in other regions, including North America, Europe, Australia and Japan.[3]
Music video[]
A music video was produced by the director Tim Broad. It opens with a picture of the Oscar Wilde hanging on a brick wall, and features Morrissey and a group of Morrissey lookalikes cycling around Manchester and Salford, including famous locations such as the Salford Lads' Club.[4]
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
3:33
2.
"Girlfriend in a Coma"
2:02
7" (Netherlands, grey cover and Australia, orange cover)
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
3:33
2.
"Pretty Girls Make Graves" (early cello version)
3:35
7" (North America, blue cover)
No.
Title
Length
1.
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before"
3:33
2.
"I Keep Mine Hidden"
1:57
Artwork[]
The cover of the single is a picture of British actor and singer Murray Head from a still of the 1966 film The Family Way (a movie that would also be the source of the photograph on the cover of "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"). There are four different versions of the cover, each tinted a different colour (red, orange, blue and grey) depending on the region.
In 2007, the song was re-composed as "Stop Me" with additional lyrics from the song "You Keep Me Hangin' On" by The Supremes by British DJ Mark Ronson featuring Daniel Merriweather on the vocals. Merriweather admitted in an interview with The Guardian that he was not very familiar with the original before he recorded Mark Ronson's revised version. He explained: "Mark said, 'I want you to sing on this – it's my favourite Smiths song,' so I listened to it. I'd heard it once before, but I was never a Smiths fan. But I thought it was beautiful."[5] The song was later released as a single on 2 April 2007 on Columbia Records with the shortened name "Stop Me", and featured on the compilation album Version. The music video, released at the same time as the song, features a man who finds a pair of trainers that control him and force him to run along the motorway near the Blackwall Tunnel. This version was released in the United Kingdom. The international version showed people crying animated tears. Live versions by Mark Ronson and/or Stu Zender featuring Merriweather have appeared on Late Night with Conan O'Brien (in July 2007), BBC Radio 1 and Jimmy Kimmel Live!).
The single reached number two in the UK Singles Chart, number one in the UK Download Chart and gained considerable praise and reference, as well as controversy from loyal Smiths fans despite its chart success being the highest ever UK chart position for a Smiths song.[6] The music review site ThisisfakeDIY gave the single a 5-star rating, citing that its popularity stemmed from its abstraction from a typical Smiths song, resembling a "sweeping, orchestral pop song with horns to boot … soulful, evocative vocals … a stirring mix".[6] This song was number 80 on Rolling Stone's list of the 100 Best Songs of 2007.[7][8]
It received a mixed review from musicOMH reviewer Jenny Cole, who remarked that the notion of "discoing up a Smiths track" was a "travesty", and queried that "Morrissey would no doubt hate the idea of someone who has previously worked with Christina Aguilera and Robbie Williams" re-composing his songs.[5] However, despite such reservations, the reviewer remarked that despite its composition "in a mad way it works … Electronic, cheery and danceable, it's really not half bad" but that the addition of The Supremes to the song was "just mad".[5]
A slightly shorter edited version (where the lyrics start at the first verse) was released to mainstream radio in October 2007.[9] A remix by Kissy Sell Out features on Ministry of Sound 2008 compilation The Annual. Trance DJ Paul Oakenfold also remixed the song exclusively for his 2007 compilation album Greatest Hits & Remixes. After the win and performance of Ronson at the 2008 edition of the Brit Awards, "Stop Me" climbed as high as number 31 on the iTunes Top 100 and re-entered the UK Top 75 Singles chart at number 51. The song featured prominently in the opening scenes of the premiere of the second half of Nip/Tuck's fifth season. The song featured on the 2013 show reel for Seattle-based b-boy crew, Art of Movement, uploaded by Korean-American singer and member of the crew, Jay Park.[10]
