William,_It_Was_Really_Nothing

William, It Was Really Nothing

William, It Was Really Nothing

1984 song by the Smiths


"William, It Was Really Nothing" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths. It was released as a single in August 1984, featuring the B-sides "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" and "How Soon Is Now?", and reached No. 17 in the UK Singles Chart. The song is featured on the compilation albums Hatful of Hollow and Louder Than Bombs, as well as other best of and singles collections. In 2004, the song was ranked No. 425 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time.

Quick Facts Single by The Smiths, from the album Hatful of Hollow ...
More information Review scores, Source ...

When the band performed the song on Top of the Pops, Morrissey ripped open his shirt to reveal the words "MARRY ME" written on his chest ("Would you like to marry me?" is one line of the song).[2]

Lyrics and background

Morrissey has said of the song: "It occurred to me that within popular music if ever there were any records that discussed marriage they were always from the female's standpoint, female singers singing to women. There were never any songs saying 'do not marry, stay single, self-preservation,' etc. I thought it was about time there was a male voice speaking directly to another male saying that marriage was a waste of time ... that, in fact, it was absolutely nothing."[3]

The song is popularly believed to have been about Morrissey's short-lived friendship with Billy Mackenzie, lead singer of the Associates. The Associates' compilation album Double Hipness, released in August 2000, included the song "Stephen, You're Really Something", recorded by Billy MacKenzie and Alan Rankine during the band's reunion in 1993 as a response to "William, It Was Really Nothing".

Track listing

More information No., Title ...
  • in original green sleeve
More information No., Title ...
  • in lilac reprint sleeve
More information No., Title ...

Artwork and matrix message

British 7" and 12" with green tinted cover versions feature the matrix message: THE IMPOTENCE OF ERNEST/ROMANTIC AND SQUARE IS HIP AND AWARE

British 7' with lilac tinted cover: THE IMPOTENCE OF ERNEST/WE HATES BAD GRAMMER

British 12" with lilac tinted cover: THE IMPOTENCE OF ERNEST/ROMANTIC AND [ ] IS HIP N'AWARE

As well as being a reference to The Importance of Being Earnest, "The impotence of Ernest" is an allusion to the impotence that Ernest Hemingway suffered in his final years. The "romantic" line was said by John Lennon to Hunter Davies.

Charts

More information Chart, Peak position ...

References

  1. "William, It Was Really Nothing rating". Allmusic. Retrieved 29 October 2012.
  2. Simpson, Mark (31 May 2003). "Return of the lone stranger". The Guardian. London.

Share this article:

This article uses material from the Wikipedia article William,_It_Was_Really_Nothing, and is written by contributors. Text is available under a CC BY-SA 4.0 International License; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.