Hatful of Hollow

Hatful of Hollow
Compilation album by The Smiths
Released	November 12, 1984
Recorded	1983–1984
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	56:11
Label	Rough Trade
Producer	John Porter, The Smiths, Roger Pusey, Dale "Buffin" Griffin
Professional reviews
Allmusic link
The Smiths chronology
The Smiths (1984) Hatful of Hollow (1984) Meat Is Murder (1985)
Alternate cover
Re-issue cover

Hatful of Hollow is a compilation album by The Smiths that features BBC Radio 1 studio recordings and two contemporary singles with their B-sides. It was released on November 12, 1984 by the band's British record company, Rough Trade, just months after the band's debut, The Smiths. Eventually, on November 9, 1993, it was also released by their American label, Sire Records, which had initially declined to release the album.

In 2000 Q magazine placed Hatful of Hollow at number 44 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.

Cover

The current sleeve for Hatful of Hollow is the 1987 re-issue sleeve, featuring a photograph of the otherwise unknown Fabrice Colette taken by Gilles Decroix. Originally, the picture was larger and showed a tattoo of a Cocteau drawing on his left shoulder, which he had had done in June 1983 because he idolised Cocteau. The photograph is taken from a July 1983 special edition of the French newspaper Libération.^[1] Additionally, the old cover had a large sky blue frame with the legends "The Smiths" and "Hatful of Hollow" underneath the picture. All editions after 1987 however feature the cropped version with the text superimposed.

Composition

The album consists mainly of songs recorded over several BBC Radio 1 sessions in 1983 (tracks shown in bold were included on the album). When first broadcast, these radio sessions mainly featured songs which were otherwise unavailable - all were subsequently re-recorded for singles or the following year's debut album, with the exception of "This Night Has Opened My Eyes" which was only ever recorded for the September Peel session. Many fans, and the band themselves, considered the original radio session versions to be superior to the re-recordings, especially those on The Smiths.

1. For John Peel on 31 May 1983: "Handsome Devil", "Reel Around the Fountain", "Miserable Lie", "What Difference Does It Make?" (all four songs were later released as the Peel Sessions EP).
2. For David Jensen on 4 July 1983: "These Things Take Time", "You've Got Everything Now", "Wonderful Woman"
3. For Jensen on 5 September 1983: "Accept Yourself", "I Don't Owe You Anything", "Pretty Girls Make Graves", "Reel Around the Fountain"
4. For Peel on 21 September 1983: "This Charming Man", "Back to the Old House", "This Night Has Opened My Eyes", "Still Ill"

The album also features the band's debut single, "Hand in Glove", and their two most recent singles prior to the album's release, "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now", and "William, It Was Really Nothing", with their B-sides "Girl Afraid", "How Soon Is Now?", and "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want".

"How Soon Is Now?" would receive a separate single release in 1985 in the United Kingdom and the United States. It reached No. 24 in the British charts, but failed to chart in the U.S. Morrissey and Marr lamented the lack of chart success of what they considered their strongest song thus far; it looks like market saturation (the song had already appeared on the "William, It Was Really Nothing" single and Hatful of Hollow album) played a part.

Song differences

The radio session versions of songs are different from other studio recordings. Some of the major differences are:

• "What Difference Does It Make?" has heavier and more natural sounding guitars than the version on The Smiths. It is also in a different (higher) key than the version on The Smiths.
• "Back to the Old House" (originally the B-side to "What Difference Does It Make?") is an acoustic piece with melancholy guitars and vocals.
• "These Things Take Time" features more prominent bass and less controlled drums than the version from the "What Difference Does It Make?" 12" single. Sliding guitar pieces accompany the chorus.
• "This Charming Man" has softer and more upbeat vocals, guitars and even drums than the version released as a single and on some versions of The Smiths. Additionally, there is no solo guitar introduction.
• "Hand in Glove" is the version that appeared on the original single, not the one on The Smiths. It features a fade-intro, louder bass, and vocals that sound very distant.
• "Still Ill" opens and closes with a harmonica solo and sounds less hollow than the version on The Smiths.
• "Reel Around the Fountain" has duller sounding drums and acoustic guitars than the version on The Smiths. The bass is more prominent, but the piano and organ pieces are not included. It is also in a different (higher) key than the version on The Smiths.
• "You've Got Everything Now" is slower than the version on The Smiths and does not have any keyboard part. The bass line is also altered slightly.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Morrissey/Marr. Tracks marked "*" are exclusive to this compilation. 

Personnel

Band

• Morrissey – voice
• Johnny Marr – guitars, harmonica, mandolins
• Andy Rourke – bass guitar
• Mike Joyce – drums

Technical staff

• John Porter – producer
• The Smiths – producers
• Roger Pusey – producer
• Dale "Buffin" Griffin – producer
• Stephen Street – engineer

References