#102 (of 365) "Sweet and Tender Hooligan" The Smiths

We're right up at it. The songs that just missed the top 100. The immortal The Smiths, easily my favorite band for the first 20 years or so of my musical fandom (age 18 to 38? ehh, maybe not 20, but definitely more than a decade), did land 4 songs in the top 100, of the 8 total on this chart. This one just missed.

I think Louder than Bombs might have been the first Smiths album I ever purchased, as I distinctly recall taping a copy of a friend's cassette versions of Meat is Murder and The Queen is Dead freshman year in college. And I'm pretty sure this collection of "B sides" that was released as a double album back in 1986 was the next album of theirs I listened to. It's possible I went "forward" into Strangeways first and I just remember this more because it's a better album, and it is in fact filled with classics, at least on the 1st cassette (Is it Really So Strange?, Shoplifters of the World, Panic, Girl Afraid, Half a Person, and of course my personal ode "William it was Really Nothing, it was your life..."). But the standout for me was always this song. Just outside my top 100 ever.

"Sweet and Tender Hooligan" - The Smiths // Louder than Bombs (1986)