"Everyday Is Like Sunday" is the third track of Morrissey's debut solo album, Viva Hate, and the second single to be released by the artist. While the lyric was written by Morrissey, the song's composer was Stephen Street. It made number nine in the UK Singles Chart and remains one of his best-known songs. "Everyday Is Like Sunday", as well as the single's B-sides "Disappointed" and "Will Never Marry", feature on the compilation albumBona Drag. The track has been covered by a number of other bands, including The Pretenders, by 10,000 Maniacs, the Armageddon Dildos, Estonian 1990s pop group Mr. Lawrence and Mikel Erentxun. Colin Meloy of The Decemberists also covers the track on his solo album Colin Meloy Sings Morrissey. Dave Couse, former lead singer of A House, has performed this live with his later band The Impossible and alternative rock band Fate or Trouble, who released the song as their debut single. A mostly instrumental version was used in NFL Network's "When all you want is football" television ad campaign. As well as inspiring several cover versions it has also inspired the cult Canadian film Everyday Is Like Sunday. The lyric is reportedly inspired by Nevil Shute's novel On the Beach, about a group of people waiting for nuclear devastation in Melbourne, Australia. The single was re-issued on 27 September 2010, on CD and two 7"s, including the unreleased "November the Second", an alternative mix of "November Spawned a Monster". This re-issue debuted at number 42 on the UK singles chart. It coincided with the 20th-anniversary re-issue of his 1990 compilation Bona Drag.
Track listings
7" vinyl
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Disappointed"
12" vinyl, compact disc and cassette
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Sister I'm a Poet"
"Disappointed"
"Will Never Marry"
2010 re-issue
compact disc
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"November the Second"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
7" single #1
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Trash"
Notes: Although credited as being performed at Irvine Meadows, fans have pointed out that Morrissey did not perform at that venue in 1991, and that the live version of "Trash" is likely to have been recorded at the Pacific Amphitheatre in Costa Mesa, California on 1 June 1991.
7" single #2
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
"Everyday Is Like Sunday"
Charts
Chart
Peak position
Reviews
Although Morrissey's debut "Suedehead" had received a positive review from the English music magazine NME, the follow-up received a cooler reaction. Alluding to the controversy that had arisen over Morrissey's "Bengali in Platforms", reviewer Steven Wells warned the singer to not "attract a Sham Army style of following and end up like Jimmy Pursey" and to "Think on, lad." Praise for the single came in Q magazine in September 1992 when Chrissie Hynde said that the "lyric to Everyday Is Like Sunday is, to me, a masterful piece of prose" and Siobhan Fahey described it as her "all-time top song". Ned Raggett of AllMusic wrote, "Street's orchestrations fit the melancholic surge of the music to a T, while Morrissey's portrait of a "seaside town that they forgot to bomb" is evocative and given a bravura vocal." "There's no way the B-sides can achieve the same level as the main track, but each has their points," continues Raggett. "'Sister I'm a Poet'" is the most explicitly Smiths-like track, a quick band romp with a cryptic lyric. More of note is 'Disappointed,' which meshes a touch of 'How Soon Is Now?'-style tremolo guitar with an aggressive, shuddering drum punch. The wickedly funny lyric at once celebrates his rock icon status and pokes more than a few holes in it. 'Will Never Marry' is mostly a Street showcase of gently descending guitar and gripping strings, but Morrissey's lyric to an unknown letter writer is also worthy of note.
The song was performed live by Morrissey on his 1991, 1992, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008 tours, and on his 2012 tour of Australia and New Zealand. In 2004 the song was played in a medley with the first verse of "Subway Train" by The New York Dolls.
