How Soon Is Now?

'How Soon Is Now' was written by Johnny Marr one afternoon in June 1984. Johnny posted a rough demo of the track in the mail to Morrissey. The following morning Morrissey arrived and laid down his vocals, culling lyrics from various works in progress in his notebook in the process. According to John Porter, their producer at Rough Trade records, he completed his vocals in two takes.
The song contains only one verse which is repeated twice, plus a chorus and a bridge. The story is about someone who can't quite deal with his shyness. Two lines of the lyrics are well known in pop culture:

'I am the son, and the heir, of a shyness that is criminally vulgar. I am the son and heir, of nothing in particular' and the chorus: 'I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does'.
During recording, Johnny created an oscillating guitar effect that plays throughout the song. After a break, they added a few overdubs to the track, including a slide guitar part that gave the song real tension.
When Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis first heard the track, he felt it was too unrepresentative of The Smiths' sound to be released as a standalone single in it's own right. Despite pressure from John Porter to save the song for a later single release as an A-side, 'How Soon Is Now?' was included as B-side on the 12" single release of 'William, It Was Really Nothing' in August 1984. John's thoughts were 'They totally threw it away, wasted it'. But almost immediately night-time British radio picked up on the song, and by autumn it had become the most-requested track. Thus, it was subsequently included on The Smiths' compilation album Hatful of Hollow, released at the end of the year.
Due to the popularty, Rough Trade decided to re-released it as an A-side in the UK in January 1985. The 12" vinyl included a new instrumental track, 'Oscillate Wildly'. Although the track was considered something of a Smiths' classic by now, the re-release only managed to rise to UK#24, probably because everybody already had it.
Following the acquisition of the Rough Trade catalogue by Warner Bros. 'How Soon Is Now?' was issued - again - as a single in the UK in September 1992, which reached UK#16.

The track was covered numerous times, in the spectrum of musical genres ranging from metal-like versions (Quicksand & Meatmen) to out-right pop (t.A.T.u). Some of the versions were used as theme by TV programme Charmed. The famous guitar-riff was also sampled by Soho, under endorsement by The Smiths'. All of the version to find here. Enjoy :-)

The Smiths - How Soon Is Now? (1984)
UK#24, NZ#39


the smiths - how soon is now.. by robertjgunn

Quicksand - How Soon Is Now? (1993)

...recorded and...



...and live...

Meatmen - How Soon Is Now? (1996)

t.A.T.u. - How Soon Is Now? (2003)
FIN#8, SWE#10, NL#20, CH#21, BE#27, DE#33, AT#37, AUS#37



Afghan Whigs - How Soon Is Now?




...'Charmed' theme tunes...


Love Spit Love - How Soon Is Now? (1995)



Paradise Lost - How Soon Is Now? (1995)



Snake River Conspiracy - How Soon Is Now? (1995)




...sampled...


Soho - Hippychick (1990)




...and merely in title...


David Guetta, Sebastian Ingrosso, Dirty South feat. Julie McKnight- How Soon Is Now? (2009)
SWE#52

Kazaky

Watch out for this lot - this promises to be not just another boyband...

Artur Archibaz (Артур Арчибаз), Kyryll Fedorenko (Кирилл Федоренко), Stas Pavlov (Стас Павлов) and Oleg Zhezhel (Олег Жежель) are - Kazaky.
The four Ukrainian boys founded their band last year, having their debut in September with 'In the Middle' and following that up with 'Love' last month. Several key people in Russia's, as well as America's music industry have duly taken note, and, an entourage of very credible DJs have taken up remixing their tracks.
Their image: Provocation. Don't expect lala-songs from boys-next-door Westlife or Boyzone-style; instead, reckon with full-on, in-your-face confident arrogance, oouzing unconventional sexuality: they have abs but wear heels. Their music: American style beats. Their moves: acro-dance with elements of ballet.
Yevhen Tymokhin (Євген Тимохін) and Helena Markova (Елена Маркова) are directing their videos, with the boys doing their own choreography. Their styling is taken care of by Vasylyi Bondarenko (Василий Бондаренко).

Kazaky - Performance at Club Rai, Moscow



Kazaky - In The Middle (2010)



Kazaky - Love (2011)



Kazaky - I'm Just A Dancer (2011)

Serge Devant

Serge Devant was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, but grew up in the US. His music is stylistically diverse and transcends the boundaries of the genre, adding up to a hard-hitting, riveting but classically beautiful sound.
Not very long after his humble beginnings studying classical music in the former Soviet Union, Serge’s early electronic career is already marked with the achievements of a seasoned veteran.
Serge Devant’s first single 'Transparent' in 2005 is recorded with trance diva Jan Johnston. But his career progression took dizzy heights in 2008, when Coca-Cola has brought Serge on board with an exclusive track 'Peace on Earth' for the Olympics in Beijing and clothing maker Armani Exchange had invited him to represent the brand. Serge Devant hit the coveted DJ Mag Top 100 List and became the youngest resident DJ at New York’s legendary Crobar.
DJ Tiësto names him one of his top 5 favorite DJ’s. Tiësto and many of the worlds DJ elite personally request Serge to share the stage while Serge himself holds residencies in major U.S. cities and headlines globally. With Serge on stage, crowds witness a skillful exhibition from one of the most promising young talents in the industry today.
In 2009 he released his first album, entitled Wanderer, on which has worked with several vocalists, such as ex-iiO's Nadia Ali and Hadley Poole.
Here my favourite two tracks, but I can recommend the entire album!

Serge Devant feat. Hadley - Addicted (2009)



Serge Devant feat. Jaren - No Good (2009)