Song · The Smiths
“Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now” by The Smiths
Released 1984
“Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now” by The Smiths appears on 11 radio countdowns from 9 stations between 1984 and 2026. It was first released in 1984. Its best result is #24 on the John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1984. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #101 alternative song of 1984 and #2,858 alternative song of all time.
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"Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" came out as a Smiths single in May 1984 on Rough Trade, and it gave them their first top-ten hit in Britain. Holed up in a New York hotel room on 2 January 1984, Johnny Marr knocked out the music in about an hour on a red Gibson ES-355 that Seymour Stein had bought him that very day, then wrote the B-side "Girl Afraid" that same evening.
John Porter produced, and the session was the start of the band's partnership with Stephen Street, engineering at Island's Fallout Shelter studios. Marr's guitar chimes and ripples, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce keep a gentle sway going, and Morrissey mopes gloriously on top. It later landed on Hatful of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame counts it among its 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Indie & Adult Alternative
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1984 | 24 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1984 | 48 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990 | 273 | Live 105 | Live 105 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (Memorial Day 1990) | 299 |
| 1991 | 287 | CFNY 102.1 The Edge | CFNY Top 1002 Songs of All-Time (1991 Edition) | 1002 |
| 1994 | 200 | Live 105 | Live 105 Revolutionary 500 (July 1994) | 500 |
| 1999 | 161 | WLIR / WDRE | WLIR Top 300 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 300 |
| 2000 | 341 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2000) | 500 |
| 2001 | 341 | WOXY 97X | WOXY Modern Rock 500 (2001) | 498 |
| 2020 | 1097 | WXPN | WXPN 2020 Greatest Songs of All Time | 2020 |
| 2021 | 233 | 90.9 The Bridge | 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '80s | 909 |
| 2022 | 758 | The Colorado Sound | The Colorado Sound Top 1055 Colorado Sound Songs of All Time | 1055 |
| 2026 | 166 | WFPK | WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '80s | 498 |
Also listed as: Heaven Knows I'm Miserable.
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