Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others

Camp As Art

The final track on The Queen Is Dead studio album, 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others', has over time become one of the more memorable and revered songs from the Smiths' oeuvre.  The song possesses an indefinable quality beginning with the fade in/out in its intro.  Johnny's jangly guitar (at times employing a 'slide' style) emotes a sound that is largely moody - yet at times playful - and carries the melody forward at a slightly frenetic pace.  As Morrissey delivers the opening lines - "From the Ice Age to the dole age" - in an almost hum-drum manner no less, something seems peculiar.  But this quickly dissolves upon hearing Morrissey's inane discovery - that some girls are bigger than others.  

A-side of the German single

The juxtaposition of the song's melody with seemingly frivolous (and campy) lyrics ("As Antony said to Cleopatra/As he opened a crate of ale"¹) gives the track a beguiling charm that has grown rather than fade with time.  Indeed, the song's lyrics add to, rather than detract from, Morrissey's brilliance as a lyricist. The pairing of Marr's exquisite musical composition and Morrissey's simple yet memorable words is akin to a magical collision that in some ways is transcendent.  

Back cover of the German single

Johnny Marr revealed the song’s genesis to NME in a 2011 interview: 

“I’d ride round there [Morrissey's home] on my Yamaha DT 175 and post them [a cassette containing the recorded demo of a musical composition] through his letterbox [...] 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others' was done that way. All the music for that came in one wave while I was watching telly with the sound down.  Some things just drop out of the heavens, and 'Some Girls'… was one of them.” 

One can only imagine what Johnny, Andy and Mike initially thought when they first heard Morrissey utter the song's lyrics.  

As the NME noted in its June 1986 interview with Morrissey immediately prior to the release of The Queen is Dead, "One new song, the delicious 'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others', must be the most evocative verse about nothing ever written.  For some reason all kinds of permutations go through your mind when it's playing, a hilarious send up of Page Three amongst others, and one can't help be reminded that Morrissey doesn't write songs about women - unless they happen to be his mother."    

Morrissey spoke about his sudden interest in women's body sizes in this interview with the NME:

“The whole idea of womanhood is something that to me is largely unexplored,...I’m realising things about women that I never realised before and Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others is just taking it down to the basic absurdity of recognising the contours of one’s body. The fact that I’ve scuttled through 26 years of life without ever noticing the contours of the body are different is an outrageous farce!”

What is especially notable of Morrissey's lyrics dealing with women's body sizes and shapes is the absolute absence of "macho" male swagger, not to mention any hint of prurient interest, which is rather astounding given the litany of pop songs up to that time dealing with the subject in a largely tawdry manner.  But as Morrissey explained to the NME, the issue of differing body shapes amongst the opposite sex had only recently dawned upon him, which seems an honest admission considering his self-professed celibacy throughout his time in the Smiths and thereafter (that is, until Jake entered his life).  

Listen to the remastered version of ‘Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others’ here:

As he is apt to do, Morrissey "borrowed" from another artist in composing the lyrics for the song, specifically, the line "Send me the pillow...The one that you dream on...".  In this instance it was from the title of American country music singer-songwriter Hank Locklin's song 'Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On'.  This single was originally released in 1949 and failed to chart, though its reissue by Locklin in 1958 saw it reach number 43 on the country music chart in the US. 

It is far more likely that Morrissey took notice of American singer-songwriter Johnny Tillotson's cover of Locklin's song, which was released in 1962 and reached number 17 on the US Billboard chart, as well as number 21 on the UK Singles Chart.  

Listen to Johnny Tillotson’s 1962 single 'Send Me The Pillow That You Dream On' here:

The Smiths recorded  'Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others'  along with the other tracks for The Queen Is Dead at Jacobs Studio, in Farnham, Surrey, during the autumn of 1985.  Morrissey and Johnny produced the recording of the song, with Stephen Street acting as recording engineer.  

Street recalled that “The song, as it was, just faded in, so I thought we had to do something a bit more interesting, [...] Basically, I put all the reverb on the drums up so it sounded like it was coming in from some large hall, and then faded it down really quickly. Then I took all the reverb back off and faded it up again. The effect was supposed to be like the music in a hall somewhere, it goes away, then it comes back and it’s nice and clean and dry. A bit like opening a door, closing it, then opening it again and walking in.”²

Street also said that "The last track of the album is so important.  I had this idea of starting it off making it sound like it's clattery and distant, fading in and out and then fading up