Song · The Smiths
“Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths
“Cemetery Gates” by The Smiths appears on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations between 1986 and 2002. Its best result is #35 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1986. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #148 alternative song of 1986 and #6,365 alternative song of all time.
Morrissey and Johnny Marr wrote "Cemetry Gates" for The Queen Is Dead, the Smiths' third album, in 1986, and it almost stalled before it started. Marr had a riff he considered too dull to build a song on; Morrissey heard something in it and talked him round, and that gentle guitar figure ends up carrying the whole thing.
Over it, Morrissey strolls through his memories of Manchester's graveyards and cracks a joke about plagiarism in his own lyrics, and critics have since saluted both the humor in the words and the lightness of Marr's playing. The same year it also turned up as the B-side of "Ask".
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1986 | 35 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1986 | 50 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 1536 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
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