"Hand in Glove" is the debut single by English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr.

That same year, a cover version recorded by singer Sandie Shaw featuring Smiths members Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce as backing musicians reached No.

Morrissey claimed in later years that he was dissatisfied with his vocal and returned a week later to re-record his part, the day after which the entire group travelled to London and convinced Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis to release the record.

[7] Two months after the single's release, the Smiths recorded the song again during aborted sessions for their debut album with producer Troy Tate.

Due to impending deadlines, the version that ultimately appeared on the band's first album The Smiths was a remix of the original master recording from the Strawberry Studios session.

For this version, Porter increased the separation between Marr's guitar tracks and Morrissey's vocals, emphasised drummer Mike Joyce's drum beat, pushed Rourke's bass back in the mix, and created a more dramatic opening and conclusion to the song.

Simon Goddard wrote that Marr's use of the instrument "purposefully evoked the very same 'blunt vitality of working-class "northernness" that Ian McDonald attributes to The Beatles' parallel 1962 single 'Love Me Do', though infinitely more melancholy."

Of the backing music, Goddard wrote, "Marr's redolent minor chord wash weeps with a rain-soaked hopelessness while Rourke contributes one of his most inspired bass patterns".

[9] Morrissey explained that the song's theme was "complete loneliness," going on to state: "It was important to me that that there'd be something searingly poetic about it, in a lyrical sense, and yet jubilant at the same time.

[9] While reviewing a 1983 concert by the Smiths and the Go-Betweens at The Venue in London, Barney Hoskyns, writing for the NME, described "Hand in Glove" as "one of the year's few masterpieces, a thing of beauty and a joy forever".

[15] Writing for AllMusic, Ned Raggett called the song a "stunning, surprising debut" and describes the music as "sparkling", highlighting Marr's "careful overdubbing of acoustic and electric guitars".

The cover to the single features a photograph of George O'Mara by Lou Thomas or Jim French, taken from Margaret Walters' history The Nude Male.

[21] In the summer of 1983, Marr and Morrissey began asking Shaw to cover their song "I Don't Owe You Anything", which they had conceived with her in mind to perform.

Shaw was sceptical at first; she was discouraged by the negative media attention that accompanied the Smiths song "Reel Around the Fountain", and when she received a copy of "Hand in Glove" in the mail, she reportedly exclaimed to her husband "he's started sending me pictures of naked men with their bums showing!

In January 1984, NME announced that Shaw and the Smiths would release a collaborative recording of "I Don't Owe You Anything" as a single on Rough Trade.

[21] The version of "Hand in Glove" recorded at Matrix was performed in the key of D minor, while Marr placed the intro riff's accent on a major scale and Shaw altered some lyrics.

[23][24] Marr, Rourke and Joyce backed Shaw on two mimed television performances of the song, first on Channel 4's Earsay in March 1984, and then on Top of the Pops on 26 April, where the band appeared barefoot in homage to the singer, who did so often in the 1960s.