"What Do You See In Him?"
(Morrissey/Marr)

 

This song was written at the end of 1982. It was rehearsed upstairs at Joe Moss' Crazy Face Clothing Co in the winter of 1982-83. It was never be professionally recorded before going under and resurrecting with different lyrics under the new title "Wonderful Woman".

 

This early incarnation of the song was never released in a studio form.

 

This song has never been performed specifically for radio or television.

 

This song has only been done in concert twice by the Smiths, at the band's second and third live engagements. As the setlist is not known for the two following dates, it could be speculated that it may have actually been played up to 4 times before disappearing, only to re-emerge in the Smiths' set in early June 1983 as "Wonderful Woman". There are no officially released live recordings of this song at this point in time, but recordings of concert performances are circulated on bootlegs.

 

No demos or studio outtakes of this song have leaked to the general public at this point in time.

 

Quotes

Morrissey friend James Maker states in his "Autofellatio" book: "Initially, [Mike Joyce and Andy Rourke¸] were not particularly comfortable with the connotations of Morrissey’s prescient homoeroticism. The title of What Do You See In Her? [sic] was changed to Wonderful Woman for this very reason because of a concern that the group might be construed as gay. However, it was evident from the beginning that the songwriting, the conceptualisation of the group’s identity and the public voice of The Smiths lay exclusively in the hands of Morrissey and Marr. Consultation with Rourke and Joyce in this regard was superfluous.".