The song had already been released in an edited form, as a double A side with the song "
Procession" in September 1981. Two original songs, "Cries and Whispers" and "Mesh," are included as B-sides. Both have been commonly mistitled on New Order's releases, in part due to the titles not being part of the lyrics, a common trait of many New Order songs. On the original 1981 12" single, the track names of the B-sides are correctly identified on the label, but are printed in incorrect order on the sleeve; however, on some mid-80's reissues of the single, the tracks themselves are reversed, with "Mesh" playing first, thus matching the sleeve while being in conflict with the label. As a result, the songs were misidentified on subsequent releases: on both the printed material and the label, the titles are incorrectly swapped on the 1987
Substance compilation, as well as on the ''Everything's Gone Green'' 1990 CD single release, and the original 2008 two-disc "Collector's Edition" release of
Movement. The 2002 CD box set
Retro was the first release since the
1981-1982 compilation to use a correct title across its packaging, and in its liner notes, drummer
Stephen Morris writes, "Cries and Whispers is a great revelation because everyone thinks it's called Mesh. But it isn't. It was mislabelled in 1987 and nobody ever noticed." Both the 2009 second release of the "Collector's Edition" of
Movement (which corrected audio errors on the 2008 original) and the 2023 reissue of
Substance use the correct titles, and for the 2019 12" single reissue of ''Everything's Gone Green,'' the sleeve art itself was altered to present the track names in the correct order, with "Cries and Whispers" listed before "Mesh." The title "Cries and Whispers" is taken from the
Ingmar Bergman film. Morris later wrote about the origin of the title for "Everything's Gone Green": "The song's title arrived spontaneously as we were programming the rhythm track at Pinky's. After a few hours of button stabbing, synth-chattering and drum bashing, I sat down on a rickety chair, rolled a joint and inhaled deeply. The weak sunlight was reflected off the glazing of the swimming baths opposite and diffused through the grease-smeared window of our room. Momentarily, the light seemed to me to take on a crystalline glow, giving the room an aquamarine haze. 'Everything's gone Green,' I observed. 'That's good, let's call it that then,' said Bernard, who hadn't noticed my Condor moment." ==Availability==