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"Sing Your Life"
Single by Morrissey
from the album Kill Uncle
B-side
Released1 April 1991 (1991-04-01)[1]
Length3:29
LabelHMV
Songwriter(s)Morrissey, Mark Nevin
Producer(s)Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley
Morrissey singles chronology
"Our Frank"
(1990) 		"Sing Your Life"
(1991) 		"Pregnant for the Last Time"
(1991)
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[2]

"Sing Your Life" is a single by English singer-songwriter Morrissey released in April 1991. It was the second single taken from the Kill Uncle album. On release this was Morrissey's lowest charting single in the UK charts, reaching only number 33. One of the single's B-sides was a cover version of "That's Entertainment" by The Jam which had backing vocals by Chas Smash, a.k.a. Carl Smyth the second singer of the band Madness. Vic Reeves also recorded backing vocals for the song, but they weren't included in the final version.[3] He is thanked in the sleeve notes.[4][5]

Critical review

Stuart Maconie in NME gave the single a positive review, calling it "toe-tapping".[6] Ned Raggett of AllMusic called the song "one of Morrissey's subtler pieces, and also one with a more upbeat and straightforward message than most."[2]

Live performances

The song was performed live by Morrissey on his 1991 Kill Uncle tour. The song was last performed on 6 October 1991, and was dropped from the set list for the rest of the tour. Along with all of the material from Kill Uncle, "Sing Your Life" has never been performed by Morrissey since the 1991 tour, but it is frequently requested by his audience. When Morrissey hears the request, he usually replies by saying "I'm singing it."[7]

Track listings

7-inch vinyl and cassette

  1. "Sing Your Life"
  2. "That's Entertainment" (The Jam cover)

12-inch vinyl

  1. "Sing Your Life"
  2. "That's Entertainment" (The Jam cover)
  3. "The Loop"

CD

  1. "Sing Your Life"
  2. "That's Entertainment" (The Jam cover)
  3. "The Loop"
Region Record label Format Catalogue number
UK HMV 7-inch vinyl POP1626
UK HMV 12-inch vinyl 12POP1626
UK HMV Compact disc CDPOP1626
UK HMV Cassette TCPOP1626

Musicians

Charts

Chart (1991) Peak
position
Ireland (IRMA)[8] 21
UK Singles (OCC)[9] 33

In popular culture

The song is featured prominently in season one, episode seven of the Netflix show Daybreak, when character Ms Crumble's passion for Morrissey's music forms an important plot point. It appears as the theme song of a fictitious post-apocalyptic sitcom, in a Spanish version performed by Ms Crumble's Morrissey cover band, and as a duet by characters Angelica (Alyvia Alyn Lind and Ms Crumble Krysta Rodriguez). The episode itself is called "Canta Tu Vida", the Spanish translation of the song's title.[10]

References

  1. ^ "New Releases: Singles". Music Week. 30 March 1991. p. 25.
  2. ^ a b Raggett, Ned. "Sing Your Life Review". AllMusic. Retrieved 18 October 2012.
  3. ^ Maconie, Stuart (6 April 1991). "Why does this man want to be a popstar?". NME: 50.
  4. ^ Goddard, Simon (2009). Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths. Ebury Publishing. pp. 347–8.
  5. ^ Morrissey, Sing Your Life credits (CD sleeve notes). A and Son Music Ltd. 1991.
  6. ^ NME Sing Your Life Review
  7. ^ "Morrissey live history: Kill Uncle tour". www.passionsjustlikemine.com. Retrieved 14 April 2017.
  8. ^ "The Irish Charts – Search Results – Sing Your Life". Irish Singles Chart. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  9. ^ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
  10. ^ "Daybreak Soundtrack: Every song that features in the Netflix show". Pop Buzz. Retrieved 11 February 2020.
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