Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Girlfriend in a Coma

Germany 7" [Line LIS1.00025B (grey, white or yellow vinyl)]

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
I Keep Mine Hidden

Canada 7" [Sire 92 81367]
USA 7" [Sire 9 28136-7]

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Pretty Girls Make Graves (Troy Tate demo)

Australia 7" [CBS 651284-7]
Holland 7" [Megadisc MD5280]

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Work Is A Four-Letter Word
Girlfriend in a Coma
I Keep Mine Hidden

Europe/Germany 12" [Line 609 438 (black vinyl)]
Germany 12" [Line LIEP3.00013/LMS 3.00013 (white or luminous orange vinyl)]
Germany CD5 [Line LICD9.00440J]

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Pretty Girls Make Graves (Troy Tate demo)
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (live 12/12/86)

Australia 12" [CBS 651284-6]
Holland 12" [Megadisc MD125280]

Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before
Pretty Girls Make Graves (Troy Tate demo)
Some Girls Are Bigger Than Others (live 12/12/86)
Girlfriend In A Coma
Work Is A Four Letter Word
I Keep Mine Hidden
Sheila Take A Bow
Is It Really So Strange? (Peel session 17/12/86)
Sweet And Tender Hooligan (Peel session 17/12/86)

Japan CD5 [Victor VDP-28025]
Japan CD5 [1990 reissue on Victor VICP-2007]

Additional information:
German singles on all formats are double a-sides with "Girlfriend In A Coma".

Artwork information:
Murray Head from "The Family Way" [1966]. The image is tinted red in Germany, blue in the USA, grey in Holland and Japan and yellow in Australia.

The Dutch grey 7" and 12" have the same artwork on both sides. The yellow Australian singles have the "Strangeways Here We Come" cover on the back (in small).

Etchings on vinyl:
None.

Additional release date information:
Japan: 21 January 1988

Chart peak information:
USA: didn't chart

Promotion:
Stock copies of the 7" and 12" formats were made into promos by being stamped in gold on the back of the sleeve with the promo warning "Promotion only not for sale".

Canada: The promo version of this 7" single was also distributed inside a generic WEA sleeve, but the record's middle has a solid centre with promo text instead of the stock version's larger hole.

Germany: The white vinyl edition of the 7" was dispatched to media with an Ariola 'Single Facts' sheet.

Japan: Promo cds of the original 1988 edition of this EP have SAMPLE printed in red on the inner rim and a red promo sticker over the barcode on the back. The promos for the 1990 reissue are marked as SAMPLE on the obi and on the cd's inner ring.

USA: The promo counterpart to the 7" is similar to the stock version, but it features the title track on both sides and promo text appears on the record's label in place of the barcode. The one-track promo 12" of "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" was not meant to promote this single, but rather the "Strangeways Here We Come" album. The video for "Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before" was included on a Warner various artists promo video compilation dated 12-01-87. This also served indirectly to promote the "Strangeways Here We Come" album.

Quotes

"I desperately desperately wanted ['Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'] to be released. Rough Trade sent white labels along to Radio One but they said they would never under any circumstances play it because of the line about mass murder. 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. I think Rough Trade should've released 'Death Of A Disco Dancer' instead just to be stroppy."
- Morrissey, NME, 13 February 1988