Shoplifters of the World Unite was a single released by iconic Manchester guitar group The Smiths in January 1987. A modest hit, the song reached Numebr 12 in the UK Singles Chart. As was often the case with Smiths singles, it did not appear on an original studio album, but came be found on the American import Louder Than Bombs, as well as the Singles and The World Won't Listen compilations.

The song was originally intended to be the B-side of You Just Haven't Earned It Yet, Baby, and even made it to the test pressing stage. Around 900 stock copies of the single were manufactured before the proper single was issued with Shoplifters of the World Unite as the A-side. This aborted single mix can be heard on the UK compilation The World Won't Listen, while the song was later remixed for the American compilation Louder Than Bombs.

With its superbly provocative title and anti-Thatcherite themes, the song became highly controversial. The title alludes to Karl Marx’s famous slogan ‘workers of the world, unite!’. Subverting well-known phrases by injecting humour was a favourite device of Morrissey’s. During a chat with the writer Shaun Duggan, Morrissey explained the meaning of the song as follows: "It's more or less spiritual shoplifting, cultural shoplifting, taking things and using them to your own advantage."

Smiths releases invariably feature distinctive sleeves designed by Morrissey himself. These usually feature striking photographic portraits of Morrissey’s heroes, many of the drawn from British ‘Kitchen Sink’ cinema of the 1960s, or soap operas such as Coronation Street. The cover star of the Shoplifters single is a young Elvis Presley.

Musically the song resembles the T.Rex track Children of the Revolution (both Morrissey and guitarist Johnny Marr are Marc Bolan fans). Marr has acknowledged than a earlier Smiths single, Panic, was inspired by T.Rex’s Metal Guru.

Morrissey was famous for etching bizarre hidden messages into the run-out grooves of Smiths releases. The Shoplifters single features the cryptic legend ‘ALF RAMSEY'S REVENGE’ (Alf Ramsey being the England football manager from 1963 to 1974). Morrissey has declared that this is his favourite Smiths track. At other times, however, he has said the same thing about The Boy With The Thorn In His Side.

Reading

Simon Goddard, The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life. Reynolds & Hearn, 2004

Simon Goddard, Mozipedia: The Encyclopaedia of Morrissey and the Smiths. Ebury Press, 2009