‘Work Is a Four Letter Word’

The Last Straw

This cover song was recorded by the Smiths in May 1987 at Firehouse Studios in London in the course of what would turn out to be their final studio session as a band. The song was produced by Grant Showbiz with mixing performed by Stephen Street. The song appeared on the B-side of their 20th single, ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’, which was released August 10, 1987.

Cover of the ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ single

The single's cover art features playwright Shelagh Delaney from a 1961 edition of A Taste of Honey¹.

The cover of the 1961 edition of the play, A Taste Of Honey, which was utilized by Morrissey for the cover art of the Smiths’ ‘Girlfriend in a Coma’ single.

This was the second time Delaney appeared on a Smiths cover (having already appeared on the cover of the Louder Than Bombs compilation album).

“SO FAR SO BAD” was etched on the runout of the B-side of the UK seven-inch vinyl format, while the runout on the B-side of the twelve-inch format was etched with “AND NEVER MORE SHALL BE SO”.

‘Work Is a Four Letter Word’ was included as a backing track on the twelve-inch vinyl and CD formats of the German release of the ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ single in October 1987.

Cover of the German issue of the ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ single

In Japan, the song was included as a backing track on a sort of hybrid issue of the ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ single, which was actually a nine-track CD compilation of remastered songs released in January 1988².

Cover of the Japan only compilation CD featuring the ‘Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before’ single

The song was included as a track on a limited release (a total of 2,500 units) in France in 1992 in the form of a CD giveaway titled Handsome Devils. The CD was used to promote subscriptions to the French magazine Les Inrockuptibles. The cover art for the French release consists of a black and white photograph of two Teddy boys.

Cover of the limited release Handsome Devils giveaway CD

The song was also included as a B-side to the Smiths’ 28th single, ‘Sweet and Tender Hooligan’, which was released in May 1995.

Last, but not least, a remastered version of the song appears on the deluxe edition of the Complete super-compilation album, which was released in October 2011.

Cover of the Complete compilation album

‘Work Is a Four Letter Word’ was written by Don Black³ and Guy Woolfenden⁴. The song, which was originally sung by English singer Cilla Black⁵ (and produced by George Martin), was released in June 7, 1968 as a B-side to her ‘Where is Tomorrow’ single, which was a minor hit in the UK, reaching no. 39 in the charts.

Listen to Cilla Black perform the song here:

The track was also the theme song for a 1968 British satirical comedy film by the same name starring Cilla Black in her only acting role in a cinematic film.

"'Work Is a Four Letter Word' I hated. That was the last straw, really. I didn't form a group to perform Cilla Black songs. That was it, really. I made a decision that I was going to get