The indie rock band whose 1986 album “The Queen Is Dead” features “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” is the Smiths.
“There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” was written by vocalist Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr and appears on The Queen Is Dead, the Smiths’ third studio album. Rough Trade released the album on June 16, 1986, after recording sessions in London and Surrey during 1985.
The song’s sweeping arrangement combines Marr’s melodic guitar writing with synthesized strings created on an E-mu Emulator. Those strings were credited on the album to the fictional “Hated Salford Ensemble,” a detail that sometimes leads listeners to assume a real orchestra performed on the track.
Although widely regarded as one of the Smiths’ signature songs, it was not released as a UK single until October 1992, five years after the band broke up. The delayed single reached No. 25 on the UK Singles Chart. The song’s long afterlife reflects the contrast between its romantic surface and its darker, fatalistic imagery.