The Moz/Smiths Top 100, Part 254: HAPPY LOVERS UNITED

How do you rate Happy Lovers United?


  • Total voters
    65

Houdini

Junior Member
In 2007, and early 2008, we put up polls for all 234 then released Morrissey and The Smiths-songs. More than 25,000 votes were cast and the result was The Morrissey/Smiths Top 100, or indeed, The Morrissey/The Smiths Top 234. This year many people have asked me to continue with the polls as 18 new Morrissey-songs have been released since. With the release of 'Swords' now seems as good a time as any to start them.

Now that we've done all the new songs from 2009, and the older songs released this year, and with no foreseeable new songs in the near future, to finish these series off we'll move to the unreleased (full) tracks that have emerged over the last couple of year, i.e. Born To Hang, Happy Lovers United, I'm Playing Easy To Get, Lifeguard On Duty, Oh Phoney, Please help The Cause Against Loneliness and Striptease With A Difference, in that order.
So here is:

Song 254: HAPPY LOVERS UNITED


Voting should be something along these lines:
10: Perfection
9: Near perfect, brilliant
8: Really good Moz/Smiths song
7: Good Moz/Smiths song
6: OK, Nothing special
5: Uninspired
4: Poor
3: Bad
2: Should never have been released
1: He should be ashamed

Previous polls (voting will remain open):

Part 253: Born To Hang
Part 252: You Should Have been Nice To Me
Part 251: Fantastic Bird
Part 250: Honey, You Know Where To Find Me
Part 249: I'm OK By Myself
Part 248: Sorry Doesn't Help
Part 247: You Were Good In Your Time
Part 246: It's Not Your Birthday Anymore
Part 245: One Day Goodbye Will Be Farewell
Part 244: When Last I Spoke To Carol
Part 243: Black Cloud
Part 242: Mama Lay Softly On The Riverbed
Part 241: Something Is Squeezing My Skull
Part 240: Because Of My Poor Education
Part 239: Shame Is The Name
Part 238: I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris
Part 237: My Dearest Love
Part 236: Drive-In Saturday
Part 235: Children In Pieces
Part 234: That's How People Grow Up
Part 233: All You Need Is Me
Part 232 and previous
 
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This is a strong 9. Stunning melody (both vocally and other), beautifully sung and with biting lyrics. My favourite from Revelations. I could listen to it over and over.
 
Seems to me like a sketch, it's not bad but I don't care about the Happy Lovers, and the lyrics are lazy. I think it could use a re-write.
 
This is a strong 9. Stunning melody (both vocally and other), beautifully sung and with biting lyrics. My favourite from Revelations. I could listen to it over and over.

10 - archetypal, photofit of Morrissey from that period.

This and this.

I love the opening jingle. The lyrics are anything but lazy, esp compared to his recent stuff. I think maybe the tune & the way it's sung, 'sounds' lazy, but that adds to the charm of it for me. I love how off-key the vocals sound at He/She's so kind... and I adore the part '...but they don't want/need me nowwww-ahh (breath) hanging around...

I gave it a 9. If it had come out when it was supposed to, I wonder if I'd be as excited about it. It's like a breath of fresh air among what I didn't like from YoR. There are so many songs about himself (not that I mind) that it's nice to hear one about him being a catalyst & helping others, it's like the prequel to Driving Your Girlfriend Home...who likes happy endings, anyway. :p

The mere mention of this song has it stuck in my head the rest of the day. It's a hard song to sing (I'm pretty excited I've mastered it ;)) and one of those that makes you realize how talented his diaphram & breath control really are. :D
 
Tuneless, Morrissey-on-autopilot tosh.
 
Certainly a 9. Love it.
 
frist time i heard it i had to turn it off halfway through. maybe abad day, but it just sounded like so much nothing that i couldn't handle. i've played it maybe 4 or 5 times since and it has become marginally less painful to listen to. this is the solo song i like least of all right now.

IMO

very poor.
 
I liked the one the other day better where it sounded like Faith by George Michael was playing in the next room while he improvised lyrics.
 
How people can give something salvaged from the cutting room floor a 9 or 10 is beyond me. Moz is probably mortified that this song is even doing the rounds.
 
How people can give something salvaged from the cutting room floor a 9 or 10 is beyond me. Moz is probably mortified that this song is even doing the rounds.

Just because Mozzer didn't care for it doesn't mean it is pure shite. One does have a taste of ones own, mind you.
 
Just heard this one for the first few times. I agree that this one hadn't seen the light of day for a reason. The vocal melody has real potential but this is pretty obviously an outtake. He's not as crisp as usual, his voice is just off somehow, and the lyrics are mostly throwaway. (For the record I think a lot off Years of Refusal beats this.) It could have been better so I give it a 7.
 
Never heard about this one before. Is that Vini or Craig playing guitar?

Is it any of them? Isn't this from 1990? In that case Nevin?
 
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