Morrissey is an English singer-songwriter from Davyhulme, United Kingdom, born in 1959. He is of Irish descent and is best known as the lead singer of The Smiths, a group he fronts in the 1980s before beginning a solo career after the band splits in 1987.

Career with The Smiths

Morrissey performs with The Smiths, one of the most influential alternative bands of the 1980s. The group includes him as lead vocalist and lyrics writer, and it remains a central part of his career history.

Solo career

His first solo album, Viva Hate, appears six months after The Smiths split. Its first single, Suedehead, reaches number five in the UK, a higher chart position than any Smiths single. Bona Drag, released in 1990, collects solo singles and B-sides, including The Last of the Famous International Playboys and Everyday Is Like Sunday.

Kill Uncle follows in 1991 and is less well received than his debut, with neither single entering the UK Top 20. In 1992, he releases Your Arsenal, produced by Mick Ronson, and featuring singles such as Tomorrow and We Hate It When Our Friends Become Successful. A live album, Beethoven Was Deaf, follows in 1993.

Vauxhall and I arrives in 1994 and includes The More You Ignore Me, the Closer I Get, his biggest hit in the United States, where it peaks at number 46. Later that year he records the duet single Interlude with Siouxsie of Siouxsie and the Banshees.

He then releases Southpaw Grammar in 1995 and Maladjusted in 1997. A period of inactivity follows in the late 1990s and early 2000s while he looks for a suitable label. After seven years without a new album, You Are the Quarry appears in 2004. Its lead single, Irish Blood, English Heart, reaches number three in the UK and matches the highest chart position of his career, alongside You Have Killed Me in 2006. The album sells over a million copies and becomes his most successful release, either solo or with The Smiths.

Ringleader of the Tormentors, produced by Tony Visconti, reaches number one in the UK album chart in 2006. A greatest hits collection follows in 2008, with two new singles, All You Need Is Me and That’s How People Grow Up. Years of Refusal appears in 2009, produced by Jerry Finn, followed later that year by the B-sides collection Swords.

He releases Low in High School in 2017, produced by Joe Chiccarelli, who also works on World Peace Is None of Your Business and later records California Son in 2018. California Son, a collection of cover versions, appears in 2019 on his label étienne and is licensed through BMG. I Am Not a Dog on a Chain follows in 2020 on BMG, recorded in Saint-Rémy, France with Chiccarelli. His 2021 album Bonfire of Teenagers is recorded but not released, and the single Rebels Without Applause appears in 2022.

Style and releases

Morrissey is associated with alternative rock, art pop, britpop, indie pop, indie rock and jangle pop. His labels include étienne, Bona Relations, Linder Ltd., Morrissey Official Online Store and Morrissey Publishing Designee.