“Ask” by The Smiths

"Ask" came out as a single on 20 October 1986 on Rough Trade, and it's the Smiths at their sunniest, or at least pretending to be. Morrissey wrote the words and Johnny Marr the music, and on the surface it's a bright, bouncy pop song built on major chords. Underneath, Morrissey is talking to the shy ones, the kids too timid to speak up, and nudging them to get over it and go for what they want.

The guitars are stacked layer on layer until the track glitters, and the production got so layered that there were arguments over how it should finally be mixed. You can hear why: it shimmers and chimes, a jangly rush that makes shyness sound like something worth celebrating.

It kept the band's run of UK top-20 hits going, reaching 14 in Britain and nine in Ireland, and the filmmaker Derek Jarman directed its video. Like most Smiths singles it never appeared on a studio album; it turned up instead on the 1987 compilations The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs, and on the live album Rank in 1988. It came between "Panic" and "Shoplifters of the World Unite".

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.