Mark Ronson has spoken about the criticism he received after daring to cover The Smiths.
Mark Ronson's 'Versions' album was an enormous commercial success, with the producer re-working familiar tracks into a 60s pop style. However his media profile soon gave way to a rather strange public disgust.
A lot of the hatred stemmed from Mark Ronson's version of 'Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before'. A late period Smiths classic, the producer added some horns and a soulful delivery to craft a pop hit.
Speaking to ClashMusic, the producer recalled the controversy surrounding the single. "I understood why there are certain kids - especially The Smiths fans - that so vehemently hold their stuff dear."
"Morrissey is like this voice for the disenfranchised internationally - of course they’re going to feel like I’m hijacking something dear to them" he said. "I think it’s much more encouraging for me to know as a fan of music that music still really does have the power - that you love The Smiths so much that you send a death threat to someone you don’t know that did a cover."
Forming The Business Intl, Mark Ronson's new album shuns covers in favour of completely new material. Continuing, the producer explained that this was in part due to the massive success of 'Versions'.
"Not doing covers on this record was a given. It didn’t mean that it was any less daunting cos I’ve never been in a position of having to follow up something that was a success before" he said.
"I’m never going to be able to come up with thirteen songs that can be judged against the songs of Radiohead, The Smiths, The Jam and The Kasier Chiefs, that’s ridiculous. So I really had to convince myself in my head that this is a new record and a new project."
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