This Charming Man

Marr wrote the music for the second Peel session, recorded at Maida Vale on 14 September 1983 and broadcast a week later. He wrote it on the same night as Still Ill and Pretty Girls Make Graves. He wanted an upbeat song in a major key after the debut single. Travis heard the session and suggested it as the single instead of Reel Around the Fountain. A first attempt at Matrix Studios in London was unsatisfactory, and the A-side was recorded at Strawberry Studios in Stockport with John Porter producing. Marr overdubbed about fifteen guitar parts, and said the main part was a 1954 Telecaster rather than a Rickenbacker. The single, released in October 1983, reached 25, and a reissue in 1992 reached eight, their highest UK chart placing.

The lyric follows a cyclist with a punctured tyre who accepts a lift from a charming man in a luxury car. A line about a jumped-up pantry boy comes from the 1972 film Sleuth, and Morrissey chose old-fashioned words on purpose. The sleeve uses a still of Jean Marais from Jean Cocteau's film Orphée. On Top of the Pops Morrissey waved gladioli, and Noel Gallagher later called it life-changing. Paul Morley in the NME called it one of the greatest singles of the year. Michael Hann of the Guardian credited Rourke's bassline with lifting it from the excellent to the great. It has been covered by Death Cab for Cutie, Stars and Nouvelle Vague, and the Killers played it with Marr on guitar at Glastonbury in 2019.