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"Blue Monday" is an electronica track recorded and released as a single in 1983 by British band New Order.

Background

At nearly 7 and a half minutes in length, "Blue Monday" is one of the longest tracks to ever chart in the UK. It is recognised as the biggest selling 12" single of all time, but as Factory Records were not members of the British Phonographic Industry association, it was not eligible for an official gold disc. However, the Official UK Chart Company have estimated its total UK sales at over one million. In the all-time UK best-selling singles chart they published in 2002, "Blue Monday" came 76th.

The song begins with a distinctive 16th note kick drum intro. Gillian Gilbert eventually fades in a sequencer melody. According to band interviews in NewOrderStory, she did so at the wrong time so the melody is out of sync with the beat; however, the band considered it to be a happy accident that contributed to the track's charm. The verse section features the song's signature throbbing synth bass line overlaid with Peter Hook's bass guitar leads. Bernard Sumner delivers the lyrics in a deadpan manner that helped launch the coldwave genre. "Blue Monday" is an atypical hit song in that it does not feature a chorus section. The first and second verses are contiguous and are separated from the third verse by a brief series of sound effects. A short breakdown section follows the third verse which leads to an extended outro.

"Blue Monday" is often seen as one of the most important crossover tracks of the 1980s electronica scene. Synthpop had already been a major force in British popular music for several years, but "Blue Monday" was arguably the first British dance record to exhibit an obvious influence from the New York club scene, particularly the work of producers like Arthur Baker (who collaborated on New Order's follow-up single "Confusion").

As with many of New Order's songs, the meaning of "Blue Monday"'s lyric has been the subject of much debate. Although Bernard Sumner never publicly discusses his lyrics, many people have surmised that "Blue Monday" concerns the suicide of Joy Division vocalist Ian Curtis and the effect it had on his former bandmates. However, comparisons with the lyrics and the aftereffects of cocaine have also been made, which would fit in with the potentially drug related themes of many other New Order tracks (another legend has it that the band was on LSD while recording it, and after they finished the producers took them to a café to finish out their tripping while they went back and cleaned it up). It has also been suggested that the song is a reference to the Falklands War.

Official releases

"Blue Monday" has been a hit several times in the UK. In 1983 it was a hit twice, initially reaching number 12, then re-entering the chart later in the year and climbing to number 9, helped by the fact that neither side of the single (the B-side "The Beach" was an instrumental re-working of "Blue Monday") featured on the UK version of the group's subsequent album, Power, Corruption & Lies.

In 1988 it was officially remixed by Quincy Jones and John Potoker under the title "Blue Monday 88" (with the instrumental flip being humorously titled "Beach Buggy") and climbed to number 3 in the British charts. A further official remix/reissue in 1995, with a mix by Hardfloor as the lead track, also made the British Top 20.

Video clip

The music video for "Blue Monday '88" (a re-recording of the song, shortened by several minutes and featuring added vocal effects) appears on the Substance video collection released as a companion to the album of the same name. It features sketches by photographer William Wegman and his Weimaraner dog named Fay Ray doing balancing acts intercut with hand-drawn animation by Robert Breer. The band members are shown standing around doing various tasks, such as walking a wooden plank over a floor that is painted blue, holding wire-mesh constructed art and milk crates over their faces, being hit by tennis balls, and standing still while they flip through various flip books (tying into the hand-drawn animation sequences). *

Unofficial remixes and cover versions

In 1992, a cover version by Electroset was released as "How Does It Feel?". This entered the top 30 in the UK.

In 1992, The Times (Edward Ball's band) released the single "Lundi Bleu", a cover version of Blue Monday in French. The single featured an instrumental version as b-side.

One highly successful cover of the track was released, in 1998 by the American band Orgy. Their cover of Blue Monday was the second single from their album Candyass.

In 2001, a remix about Captain Jean-Luc Picard from The Next Generation entitled "The Picard Song" sampled New Order's Blue Monday in parts. In 2002 the music of "Blue Monday 1988" was combined with the Kylie Minogue vocal of "Can't Get You Out Of My Head", originally in a Soulwax bastard pop track, and was commonly known as "Can't Get Blue Monday Out Of My Head" which was popular in nightclubs and received widespread radio airplay. Minogue later went on to perform this track live, at the Brit Awards, due to popular demand. She also sang some of Bernard's vocals from the original track at this performance. New Order have reciprocated by sampling the original track on their 2005 tour performances of Blue Monday.

Also in 2002, Norwegian folktronica act Flunk released a downbeat cover of Blue Monday on their debut album, For Sleepyheads Only, however it did not gain the popularity of the original.

A further semi-official remix, by Jamx & Deleon, entered the UK Dance Music charts in 2005. It was released on the band's current record label, London Records, but is not an official New Order release.

In 2006, 'Dirty Rotten Scoundrels' made an instrumental cover version and remix of the song, but it is not very well known.

Cultural significance

The popular 1980s band Happy Mondays have cited the song's title as being a direct inspiration for their name. They were label-mates of New Order on Factory Records, and both Bernard Sumner and Peter Hook of the band produced Happy Mondays tracks at different times.

The popularity of the song have led to "Blue Monday" and the Electroset version being a popular piece for demoscene groups to use in their works.

The ubiquity of the original 1983 version of Blue Monday has even spawned an ongoing artwork. "Blue Monday Owners Club" is essentially a growing collection of photographs of Blue Monday owners clutching their copies of the 1983 12". Spencer Graham, the artist behind the work describes the record as "The perfect synthesis of synthetic sound and design." See http://www.bluemondayownersclub.com

The band also re-recorded a 30 second version for Sunkist, with lyrics such as "when need that taste for living, Sunkist is the one". Sumner was reluctant to do it, so a sign with "$200,000" on was placed in front of him while singing, although he claims this just added to his problems due to laughter.

The first episode of the anime Eureka Seven is titled "Blue Monday" after the song.

The song was used in the 1992 movie Toys with Robin Williams.

Fatboy Slim's 1995 album, Better Living Through Chemistry features an album cover, at least on Skint Records CD releases, which is inspired by Blue Monday - it features a 3 1/2" floppy disk with the track names written on the label.

The song was also featured in the 1998 (but set in 1985) movie The Wedding Singer with Adam Sandler and is included on the film's 1980s-era soundtrack.

American Express used two excerpts from the 1983 original in their 1999 advertising campaign for the American Express Blue card, one of the first credit cards to carry a Smartcard.

In 2003, Q Magazine voted Blue Monday the 9th Most Influential Song ever, the only dance track in the top ten. The 2005 NME God-Like Genuises award given to the band cited the track as being one of the reasons.

In 2005 it was used in part of a Mars choclate bar commercial.

As of 2005, the track is still regarded for its timeless appeal, and still receives regular play by DJ's, both in oldies sets and as part of a normal night's music, with any of the three official versions or the Kylie mash-up being played. The original is most common, however, due to the usual instant recognition of its intro resulting in it being a floorfiller.

Sleevenotes

A popular story about "Blue Monday" holds that the single's die-cut sleeve, created by Factory designer Peter Saville, cost so much to produce that Factory Records actually lost money on each copy sold. While this story may have some truth to it, it should certainly be taken with a pinch of salt. It is unlikely that Factory Records could have sustained the losses implied, and in any case the sleeve was soon changed to a similar, but non-die-cut, design that would cost no more than a regular sleeve. It is, however, probably true that New Order saw little profit from the single's success, since their investment in the Hacienda nightclub swallowed much of the money they made from their hit.

Another notable feature of the sleeve is that it does not display either the group name nor song title in plain English anywhere. Instead the legend "FAC 73 BLUE MONDAY AND THE BEACH NEW ORDER" is represented in code by a series of coloured blocks. The key enabling this to be deciphered was printed on the back sleeve of the album, Power, Corruption & Lies. "Blue Monday" is one of several New Order releases from this time period to employ the colour code.

Track listing

Blue Monday 1983

  1. "Blue Monday" (7:29)
  2. "The Beach" (7:19)

Blue Monday 1988

  1. "Blue Monday 1988 Version" (7:09)
  2. "Beach Buggy" (6:52)
  3. "Blue Monday 1988 Version" (4:09)

Blue Monday-95 CD

  1. "Blue Monday 12" Version" (7:29)
  2. "Blue Monday Mix" (8:34)
  3. "Blue Monday Mix" (7:31)
  4. "Blue Monday Mix" (8:26)
  5. "Blue Monday Mix" (6:29)
  6. "Blue Monday Mix" (5:29)
  7. "Blue Monday Mix" (8:02)

Other Appearances

"Blue Monday" appears on almost every New Order compilation. This is a brief rundown of what versions appear where.

External links

New Order | Sampled songs | Monday | New Order songs | 1983 singles | Billboard Hot Dance Club Play number-one singles | Sampled songs

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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Blue Monday (New Order song)".

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