was subsequently featured on the compilation album Hatful of Hollow and on US, Canadian, Australian, and Warner UK editions of Meat Is Murder.

[5] Marr recorded the song with bandmates Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce that July at London's Jam Studios.

[5] Porter recorded the first takes with microphones set up at varying distances from the band to better create a "swampy" mood.

The effect was created by running the original guitar track through the studio desk into three separate Fender Twin Reverb amplifiers, each with the tremolo control set to a different oscillation speed.

Marr and Porter would adjust each by hand while the music played to keep it in rhythm; when they failed, engineer Mark Wallis would rewind the tape and start them again.

This created what he called "a swirling signal" that balanced the analog tremolo effect and made sure the whole song stayed on the same beat.

This is almost a direct quote of a synthetic vibraphone part heard on rapper Lovebug Starski's "You've Gotta Believe", from the previous year.

[9] Music journalist Jon Savage commented the song's lyric was evocative of contemporary Manchester gay club culture.

"[13] Night-time British radio picked up on the song almost immediately, however, and by autumn it had become the most-requested track on request shows by DJs John Peel, Janice Long, and Annie Nightingale.

Rough Trade boss Geoff Travis blamed poor promotion: "I can't understand why 'How Soon Is Now?'

Two CD singles featured tracks from the Smiths' back-catalogue which were, following the demise of Rough Trade, unavailable in the United Kingdom at that time.

"Morrissey and co have once again delved into their Sixties treasure-trove, and produced a visceral power capable of blowing the dust off Eighties inertia.

The majestic ease of Morrissey's melancholic vocals are tinted with vitriol, as they move through vistas of misery with plaintive spirals around the pulse of Johnny Marr's tremolo guitar.

The string's muted strains conjure wistful signs that bridge the schism between crass sentimentality and callous detachment.

– Melody Maker, 2 February 1985 "For the most part, Morrissey is the Hilda Ogden of pop, harassed and hard done-by.

[6][18] The whistle effect in Mark Snow's theme for the television series The X-Files was inspired by the song's guitar riff.

The single's cover art was a still from the film Dunkirk (1958) featuring British actor Sean Barrett, praying but looking sufficiently as though he was holding his crotch to have the sleeve altered in the United States,[35] where a photograph of the band backstage at the 1984 Glastonbury Festival, which had previously appeared on the gatefold inside the Hatful of Hollow compilation, was used instead.

[37] Nonetheless, the video has been credited with helping make the song their most famous in the United States, along with heavy exposure on college radio.

[46] On June 5, 2000, the American industrial rock band Snake River Conspiracy released a cover version of “How Soon Is Now?” as the second single from their debut (and only) full-length album, Sonic Jihad, which charted in the US and the UK.

[48] Morrissey appeared to confirm this after being sighted at a Snake River Conspiracy concert at the Whiskey a Go Go in late 2000, after which he met the band's singer Tobey Torres.

A remix of Snake River Conspiracy's version was included on the American Eagle Outfitters sampler "Summer 9ine.

Interscope Records penned the group's "Show Me Love" as the album's third single, however after short notice, the song was dropped for unknown reasons.

received mixed reviews from music critics, who felt it lacked originality; though compared to other covers, they praised this version as the best.

[62] Todd Burns from Stylus Magazine stated that though it "fails as an independent entity", he found it a highlight and said it was worth a download.

[63] Matt Cibula from Popmatters was similar to the PopDust publication, questioning if "people fall all over themselves to either praise or damn the t.A.T.u cover of the Smiths' 'How Soon Is Now', but I can't get worked up one way or the other about it."

Cibula concluded that though it's "super-cheesy, which is a good thing", he found it "not as passionate as some people have claimed", criticising the band's vocals.

The guitar track was sampled, with the Smiths' approval, in 1990 by indie-dance band Soho on their UK Top 10 single "Hippychick".

The song was also covered by Seattle-based alternative rock band The Crying Spell on their debut album Through Hell to Heaven.

Dresage (The Smiths) popped up in the season 4 trailer for the Netflix-series The Crown, bringing this song back to the spotlight after the success of t.A.T.u.

[76][77] English singer-songwriter Emma Blackery covered the song for her second studio album, Girl in a Box.