Song · The Smiths
“Shoplifters of the World Unite” by The Smiths
Released 1987
“Shoplifters of the World Unite” by The Smiths appears on 11 radio countdowns from 7 stations between 1987 and 2019. It was first released in 1987. Its best result is #20 on the Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1987. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #66 alternative song of 1987, #3,096 alternative song of all time and #473 of the '80s.
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The Smiths had a single lined up for January 1987, "You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby", then scrapped it and put out "Shoplifters of the World Unite" instead, a stand-alone single on Rough Trade that belonged to no album. It's Morrissey at his most mischievous, cheerfully making the case for pocketing what you can while his lyrics tip their hat to Karl Marx, and plenty of people back then did not find it funny at all.
Johnny Marr wrote the music and is credited with producing it, and he gives it the swaggering glam stomp the band's recent singles had been strutting in, capped by a brief, stinging guitar solo. It reached number twelve in Britain, later turned up on The World Won't Listen and Louder Than Bombs, and Morrissey has singled it out as one of his own favourites.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1987 | 97 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1987 | 107 |
| 1987 | 63 | WLIR / WDRE Long Island, NY | WLIR Top 100 Songs of 1987 | 99 |
| 1987 | 45 | John Peel (BBC Radio 1) | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1987 | 50 |
| 1987 | 20 | Studio Brussel Flanders, Belgium | Studio Brussel De Eindafrekening 1987 | 29 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1988 | 118 | WLIR / WDRE | WLIR Top 200 Songs of All-Time (1988) | 200 |
| 1989 | 265 | KROQ | KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1989) | 495 |
| 2002 | 1818 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) | 2002 |
| 2003 | 915 | Fred (XM 44) | Fred XM Top 2044 Songs of All-Time (July 2003) | 2044 |
| 2006 | 226 | Live 105 | Live 105 500 Co-Op Countdown (Memorial Day 2006) | 500 |
| 2019 | 891 | WYEP | WYEP Big Spring Countdown 2019 | 1017 |
| 2019 | 891 | WYEP | WYEP Labor Day Weekend Countdown 2019 | 1099 |
Also listed as: Shoplifters Of The World Unite.
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