Robbed hit of the week 5/6/19 - Morrissey's "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get"...
from the album Vauxhall and I (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: #46
This week's "robbed hit" comes from alternative rock icon Morrissey who had been the lead singer/lyricist for the iconic British rock band the Smiths from 1982 through its implosion in 1987. During that time they had scored numerous hit singles in the UK, including two top ten successes with "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" and "Sheila Take A Bow" (both UK #10). However in the States they were more of a cult status love, with even rock radio ignoring them and their albums lingering in the lower stretches of the sales charts. He kickstarted his solo career in 1988 with his first album, Viva Hate, with lead single "Suedehead" immediately doing better than any Smiths' track at #5 in the UK. The album zoomed to #1 in Britain, and even climbed to #46 in America, again better than the Smiths' biggest (and last) album, Strangeways Here We Come. The following year, he started releasing a series of singles, with the first, "The Last of The Famous International Playboys", started to get him played on American radio, spending a week at #3 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock chart. In all, Morrissey landed five consecutive Modern Rock radio hits from these singles, which eventually would be collected on the compilation Bona Drag. He continued to score hits with two more albums, Kill Uncle and Your Arsenal, with the latter containing the song "Tomorrow", which topped Billboard's Modern Rock chart for six weeks in 1992. Oddly enough, that song was the final track on the album and wasn't even released as a single anywhere else but America.
Two years later, Morrissey reemerged with his fourth studio album Vauxhall and I, produced by Steve Lillywhite. The first single from the set, the dry humor of "The More You Ignore Me, The Closer I Get". Written by the singer with his band guitarist Boz Boorer, the tale of obsession is told in the first person by Morrissey with a sense of resolution amongst the jangly guitars. Coupled with lyrics like "Beware I bear more grudges than lonely high court judges..."
While "The More You Ignore Me" became Morrissey's biggest rock radio hit, spending seven weeks at #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock chart, the song stalled right under the pop top-40 in May of 1994. It was his first and so far only track to make the pop Hot 100 chart in the U.S. Internationally, the single returned him to the top ten at #8, while it was also a top-40 hit in Ireland (#24) as well as his first in Canada at #34. It just missed the top-40 in France at #42. A second single from Vauxhall, "Hold On To Your Friends", missed the American charts altogether, and even stalled under the top-40 in the UK at #48. He continued to have a string of moderate British hits for another few years, but after his 1997 album Maladjusted it would be a seven-year stretch from leaving Island Records to his next musical return. With indie label Sanctuary's Attack label releasing his record You Are The Quarry, Morrissey triumphant returned to the mainstream music scene in the UK, with four singles from the set reaching the top ten, and lead single "Irish Blood, English Heart" (#3 UK) landing him back on the Modern Rock chart in America at #36. In 2006, a second disc on his Attack label on Sanctuary, Ringleader Of The Tormentors, spun on his most recent British top ten hit, "You Have Killed Me". His most recent top-40 hit in England, "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris" (UK #21), also got him a top-40 hit in France as well at #26 in 2009. His most recent album, Low In High School, came out in 2017, with single "Spent the Day In Bed" going to #13 on Billboard's Triple-A Rock (Adult Album Alternative) radio chart and #69 in the UK singles chart. And right now he's enjoying a week-long Broadway engagement this week, and with a covers album California Sun coming out later this month.
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Here's Morrissey appearing on Top Of The Pops performing live...
Next up, the audio from his Live At Earl's Court album in 2005...
And finally, from his Introducing Morrissey live concert video from 1995...
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