"You Have Killed Me" is the first single from the album Ringleader of the Tormentors by Morrissey. The single was released on March 27, 2006. The title track was written by Morrissey and Jesse Tobias. Morrissey said it would showcase the "marked difference in sound" brought about by the new influence of Tobias on Morrissey's work while Billboard magazine described it as a "simple, effective first single."
The lyrics reference Pier Paolo Pasolini's 1961 film, Accattone, about prostitution in the slums of Rome, as is shown in the first two lines of the lyrics ("Pasolini is me"/"Accattone you’ll be"). There is much speculation as to the meaning of this quote. Some fans believe that it is merely an example on Rome's influence on Morrissey whereas some believe that it is a reference to the loss of virginity, since Accattone is Pasolini's first film.
A picture of Terence Stamp, main character of Pasolini's movie Theoreme, was also chosen by Morrissey as cover of one of the Smiths first single, What Difference Does It Make.
The lyrics also mention Anna Magnani, Luchino Visconti, and in some live performances Fellini. The references to Anna Magnani and Luchino Visconti probably refer to the Visconti's segment of the anthology film Siamo Donne, in which actresses are shown in their everyday lives, rather than as glamorous or sexualized. Anna Magnani frequently portrayed ordinary women who sacrificed everything for her family as in Visconti's Bellissima or Pasolini's Mamma Roma.
