I Started Something I Couldn't Finish

"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" is a song by The Smiths. It was released as a single in November 1987, reaching #23 in the UK Singles Chart.

It was the second of three UK singles from the band's last studio album Strangeways, Here We Come, and was released after the band had announced their split. The record company had originally intended to release "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" as a single in the UK but felt this would be inappropriate following the Hungerford massacre (the lyrics contain a reference to "mass murder").

"Stop Me..." was still released as a single in other countries, but its promotional video - which featured Morrissey plus a large number of Morrissey lookalikes - was used in the UK to promote "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish".

The cover of the single features actress Avril Angers in a film still from the 1966 film The Family Way.^[1]

1 Track listing
- 1.1 7": Rough Trade / RT198 (UK)
- 1.2 12": Rough Trade / RTT198 (UK)
2 Etchings on vinyl
3 References

[edit] Track listing

All tracks written by Morrissey and Johnny Marr except as noted.

[edit] 7": Rough Trade / RT198 (UK)

"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
"Pretty Girls Make Graves" (Troy Tate version)

[edit] 12": Rough Trade / RTT198 (UK)

"I Started Something I Couldn't Finish"
"Pretty Girls Make Graves" (Troy Tate version)
"Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others" (live)

also released on cassette Rough Trade RTT198C

The cassette version featured a cover of the James song "What's The World?"

[edit] Etchings on vinyl

UK 7" and 12": "MURDER AT THE WOOL HALL"(X)STARRING SHERIDAN WHITESIDE / YOU ARE BELIEVING, YOU DO NOT WANT TO SLEEP

The Wool Hall was the recording studio in Bath where the Smiths had recorded latest album "Strangeways Here We Come", but it also was where Morrissey, at the time of this single's release, was recording his debut solo album "Viva Hate". Sheridan Whiteside was one of Morrissey pseudonyms. The b-side etching is a reversal of "You are sleeping, you do not want to believe", a sample heard at the end of the Smiths song "Rubber Ring".

v • d • e The Smiths

Morrissey · Johnny Marr · Andy Rourke · Mike Joyce Craig Gannon · Dale Hibbert

Studio albums	The Smiths · Meat Is Murder · The Queen Is Dead · Strangeways, Here We Come

Band-assembled compilation albums	Hatful of Hollow · The World Won't Listen · Louder Than Bombs

Live albums	Rank

Compilation albums	Stop Me · Best...I · ...Best II · Singles · The Very Best of The Smiths

Singles	"Hand in Glove" · "This Charming Man" · "What Difference Does It Make?" · "Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now" · "William, It Was Really Nothing" · "How Soon Is Now?" · "Shakespeare's Sister" · "That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore" · "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" · "Bigmouth Strikes Again" · "Panic" · "Ask" · "Shoplifters of the World Unite" · "Sheila Take a Bow" · "Girlfriend in a Coma" · "I Started Something I Couldn't Finish" · "Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me" · "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" · "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" · "Sweet and Tender Hooligan"

Related articles	Rough Trade Records