Bona Drag

Product Information

Morrissey began what was to be his follow-up album, Bona Drag, surrounded by acrimony and litigation. Morrissey decided to scrap the idea of a full-length LP and release a compilation of singles and B-sides instead. Bona Drag, the most enduring success of Morrissey's solo career, was built on his first true taste of failure.

As a title, if not a studio creation, Bona Drag was rescued in 1990 and issued as a compilation record piecing together that first run of seven singles-- six of them rich and eclectic and rightly beloved, one of them the song that derailed his progress.

Sunday, Suedehead, Will Never Marry, Hairdresser, and it even has the genius of Mary Margaret O'Hara on backing vocals - in case anybody forgot about her. However, by the end of 1989 it became apparent that he would not be able to put out an album of new material soon enough.

You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. Instead of choosing to produce an immediate follow-up album, he decided to release a string of independent singles in the hopes of achieving success in that market.Bona Drag features all of Morrissey's solo singles up to that point, two of which ("Suedehead" and "Everyday Is Like Sunday") were taken from his first solo album Viva Hate, while the others were making their first ever appearance on an album. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of Condé Nast. The breakup of his partnership with Street was the most devastating: He had co-written all of Viva Hate and served as an unofficial mentor for Morrissey's early solo years, performing on records and playing several instruments. In October 2010, the album was reissued on the resurrected Major Minor label, with six officially unreleased studio recordings.

Bona Drag launched Morrissey's career in the US, and in many ways it marked the turning point after which he became less popular in the UK but achieved increasing success in America. The reissue notably included several edits, including removing a verse from 'Ouija Board Ouija Board' and restoring a previously cut verse to 'Piccadilly Palare'. Even without those additions, this would be one of the most complete and necessary compilations in rock history, working both as a functional and utilitarian way to catch up with Morrissey outside of the UK and as a way to re-assess him within it. The album features an array of Morrissey's most popular songs from his early solo career, most of which had not been released on any previous album. The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.And without the weight of being an A-side, buried in the middle of the record, even "Ouija Board" comes off as charming. After the dissolution of the Smiths, Moz was, quite oddly, tipped by many to struggle without his longtime songwriting partner and bandmate Johnny Marr; he wasted no time proving them wrong, releasing his debut solo single, "Suedehead", just over two months after the final Smiths single. The album name meaning nice outfits is an example of the subculture slang Polari explored further on the album's first track "Piccadilly Palare".

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The album is also significant for including the first tracks by Morrissey to chart in the United States. There is not a bad track on this album and the new vinyl version with 5 extra tracks is even better.