"Bigmouth Strikes Again" was released as the lead single from the album, bypassing Rough Trade's preferred choice, "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out". The single reached number 26 in the UK Singles Chart and has since seen critical acclaim along with several versions recorded by other artists.
The song began as a lyric written by Morrissey in the summer of 1985. The lyric was the final one of three written about Morrissey's frustration with the music industry, the previous two being "The Boy with the Thorn in His Side" and "Rubber Ring". "Bigmouth Strikes Again" specifically reflected Morrissey's negative experiences with the music press at the time. When asked by the NME about the song, Morrissey replied, "I can't think of one sentence [I regret saying]. We're still at that stage where if I rescued a kitten from drowning, they'd say: 'Morrissey Mauls Kitten's Body'. So what can you do?"
Morrissey intended the lyrics of the song to be humorous; he explained, "I would call it a parody if that sounded less like self-celebration, which it definitely wasn't. It was just a really funny song". Drummer Mike Joyce commented, "What a fantastic title – one of Mozzer's better ones. And with this song, you can see why he made journalists cream their pants. Listen to the lyrical content. He was a one-off." Johnny Marr based the song's music on a guitar riff he had written during a soundcheck of the band's 1985 tour. He described the song as being "as close as getting to the sound of my heroes as we came".
Initially the band had asked Kirsty MacColl to contribute backing vocals, but Marr found her harmonies "really weird" and they were left off the final recording. Instead, the backing vocals were recorded by Morrissey and altered to a higher pitch. This is credited to "Ann Coates", a reference to the Manchester district of Ancoats.
Though "Bigmouth Strikes Again" was initially planned to be released as the debut single from The Queen Is Dead in autumn 1985, by spring 1986, Rough Trade head Geoff Travis pushed for the band to release "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" instead.
"Bigmouth Strikes Again" was released as a single in May 1986, with the non-album instrumental song "Money Changes Everything" as the B-side. Marr later reused the music from "Money Changes Everything" for Bryan Ferry's 1987 hit single "The Right Stuff", which featured new lyrics from Ferry.
The single version's sleeve cover contains a photograph of James Dean by Nelva Jean Thomas. On the 12″ single, the band quoted Oscar Wilde's famous line "Talent borrows, genius steals" on the runout groove.
There was a live version of the song appeared as the closing song on the band's only live album, Rank. Another live version, recorded at the Greek Theatre in Berkeley, California, in August 1986, was released in 2017 to promote a collector's edition of The Queen Is Dead.
"Bigmouth Strikes Again" has seen critical acclaim since its release. Several publications have ranked the song as one of the band's best songs. Others called as their most iconic song. A comic masterpiece and one of the most outstandind song ever recorded by the iconical band.
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