Was the This Charming Man single deleted? Why was it so rare?

[butley]

I became a Smiths fan in 1986 and quickly bought their whole back catalogue on 7" and 12" vinyl. The only single I could not buy was This Charming Man. It was nowhere to be found. All the other singles were really easy to get hold of. I even got a Capitol logo Hand in Glove from my local WH Smiths.

 

[Anonymous]

Don't know about whether it was deleted, but it's officially the best-selling of the Smiths singles in the UK (the only one to get a silver disk), so that suggests that it isn't rare as such. Probably, though, the demand for it will have been greater because it was such a popular song and because, from a completist's point if view, all the various tracks were otherwise unavailable until the Warner re-issues in the early 90s, except the title track, which was still otherwise unavailable on vinyl. Even now, the only way to get certain of the tracks is to buy some version of the tcm single.

 

[butley]

Did it only become their best selling single after it was reissued though? Until 1992 you could not find the single anywhere unless it was second hand at record fairs etc. You couldn't even order the single from record stores. It is another lifetime ago we are talking about.