"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" is a song by the English rock band the Smiths, written by singer Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr.
Despite its censorship by British radio, "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" has seen critical acclaim for Marr's guitar work and Morrissey's witty lyricism.
"[1]Lyrically, Rolling Stone described the song as "a whirlwind tour of sex, lies, booze, obsession, mass murder, [and] bicycle-related testicular injury".
"Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" was ultimately released as a single in other regions, including the United States, Australia, Germany, and others.
They said people would've instantly linked it with Hungerford and it would've caused thousands of shoppers to go out and buy machine guns and murder their grandparents.
[8] Morrissey was hesitant to take part in the videos, but was implored by Rough Trade's Geoff Travis to participate in order to boost the album's singles.
Morrissey recalled in his autobiography, "Tim Broad steps in to make sense of it all, hotch-podging two videos for both 'Girlfriend in a Coma' and 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'.
David Browne of Rolling Stone called the track "the album’s most propulsive number" and opined, "Marr's piercing solo at the end of the song not only is one of the record's emotional highlights — it also proves it's best the band split up rather than attempt to replace him.
"[10] Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic called the song a "classic,"[11] while Douglas Wolk of Pitchfork commented, "Their final single couldn't have had a cleverer title than 'Stop Me if You Think You've Heard This One Before'.
Merriweather admitted in an interview with The Guardian that he was not very familiar with the original before he recorded Mark Ronson's revised version.
"[17] The song was later released as a single on 2 April 2007 on Columbia Records with the shortened name "Stop Me",[19] and it was included on the compilation album Version.
The music video, released at the same time as the song, features a man who finds a pair of trainers that control him and force him to run along the motorway near the Blackwall Tunnel.
[17] A slightly shorter edited version (where the lyrics start at the first verse) was released to mainstream radio in October 2007.