Released 7 December 1987 Recorded Spring 1987 Label Rough Trade | Format 7", 12", MC Genre Alternative rock | |
Length 5:02 (album version)
3:12 (single edit) | ||
"Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" is a song by The Smiths. It was released as a single in December 1987, reaching No. 30 in the UK Singles Chart.
Contents
It was the group's final single in the United Kingdom (barring re-issues) and was the last of three UK singles from the band's album Strangeways, Here We Come. The song was edited for the seven-inch single release, losing the introduction found on the parent album. The introduction consists of a piano playing against a backdrop of crowd noises from the miners' strike. The 12-inch single release contains the full-length version.
The cover of the single featured a picture of the 1950s and 1960s-era British singer Billy Fury.
At different times Johnny Marr and Morrissey have cited this as their favourite Smiths song.
Cover versions
Swedish rock band Weeping Willows used to finish their concerts with this song, the musicians leaving the stage one by one during the extended coda until the keyboardist was left on stage. As with most of their covers the song was not recorded for release.
Grant-Lee Phillips covered this song for his 1980s covers album Nineteeneighties.
Alternative band Low also covered the song, initially as a single, and later included it on their A Lifetime of Temporary Relief: 10 Years of B-Sides and Rarities. In the booklet, the band describes it as "another cover that some may sneer at. After this, nothing is sacred".
A cover by Eurythmics appears on the 2005 "Deluxe Edition Reissue" of their 1989 album We Too Are One. A bootleg copy of the band performing the song live during their Peace tour was circulated on internet filesharing networks in the early 2000s, although the studio version was recorded in 2004.
André 3000 from Outkast once stated that he wished he had written this song.
Jann Arden also covered the song on her album, Uncover Me 2.
The Last Shadow Puppets covered the song at their concerts at Castlefield Bowl and Alexandra Palace in Manchester and London respectively in 2016. Johnny Marr joined them on stage both times to perform.
Track listing
All tracks written by Morrissey and Johnny Marr.
Etchings on vinyl
British 7" and 12": "THE RETURN OF THE SUBMISSIVE SOCIETY" (X) STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE/ "THE BIZARRE ORIENTAL VIBRATING PALM DEATH" (X) STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE
Sheridan Whiteside was one of Morrissey's pseudonyms, taken from the protagonist of the play The Man Who Came to Dinner by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart; that character was in turn based on dramatic critic and raconteur Alexander Woollcott and had been referenced in the etchings of the single "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".