"Blue Monday" is a song by English

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band New Order. It was released as a

12-inch single The twelve-inch single (often written as 12-inch or 12″) is a type of vinyl ( polyvinyl chloride or PVC) gramophone record that has wider groove spacing and shorter playing time with a 'single' or a few related sound tracks on each surfac ...

on 7 March 1983 through

Factory Records Factory Records was a Manchester-based British independent record label founded in 1978 by Tony Wilson and Alan Erasmus. The label featured several important acts on its roster, including Joy Division, New Order, A Certain Ratio, the Durutt ...

. The song appears on certain

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

and CD versions of the band's second studio album, '' Power, Corruption & Lies'' (1983). The track was written and produced by

Gillian Gilbert Gillian Lesley Gilbert (born 27 January 1961) is an English musician and singer, best known as the keyboardist and guitarist of the band New Order. Early life Gilbert's family moved from her birthplace, Manchester, to the nearby market town of ...

Peter Hook Peter Hook (born Woodhead; 13 February 1956) is an English musician, best known as the bassist and co-founder of the rock bands Joy Division and New Order. Hook often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings wi ...

, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner. "Blue Monday" is a

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

and

alternative dance Alternative dance (also known as indie dance or underground dance in the U.S.) is a musical genre that mixes alternative rock with electronic dance music. Although largely confined to the British Isles, it has gained American and worldwide expos ...

song that drew inspirations from many works of other artists. The 12-inch single was backed with a primarily instrumental version of the song entitled "The Beach" on the B-side. The single's unique packaging was designed by Peter Saville and

Brett Wickens Brett Wickens (born April 15, 1961 in Hamilton, Ontario) is a British-Canadian creative director known for his work with identity design. He is a partner for the Ammunition Design Group, and is currently living and working in the San Francisco ...

. It features a die-cut sleeve designed to resemble a -inch

floppy disk A floppy disk or floppy diskette (casually referred to as a floppy, or a diskette) is an obsolescent type of disk storage composed of a thin and flexible disk of a magnetic storage medium in a square or nearly square plastic enclosure lined w ...

. The front cover features no words, but instead has

code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

in the form of coloured blocks that reads out the artist, song and label information, once deciphered. The original single was a commercial hit, making the top 10 in many countries. In the UK, although the song stalled at number 9, it spent a total of 38 weeks in the top 75. This was mirrored by its run of 186 weeks on the

UK Independent Singles Chart The UK Independent Singles Chart and UK Independent Albums Chart are charts of the best-selling independent singles and albums, respectively, in the United Kingdom. Originally published in January 1980, and widely known as the indie chart, the rele ...

, effectively selling for 4 years from release until the ''

Substance 1987 ''Substance'' (also known as ''Substance 1987'') is a compilation album by English alternative dance band New Order. It was released in August 1987 by Factory Records. The album compiles all of the band's singles at that point in their 12-in ...

'' compilation on which it featured. The UK Indie Chart run was second only to " Love Will Tear Us Apart" by Joy Division, which clocked 195 weeks (their runs overlapped). In New Zealand, it peaked at number 2 and spent 74 weeks (spread across three calendar years) in the top 50. The 1988 remix reached number 3 on the British chart and number 4 on the Australian chart, and it topped the dance chart in the United States. It is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time. In the United Kingdom, it has sold 1.16 million copies in all formats, including the 1988 and 1995 re-releases. Sales of the original 1983 12-inch release account for the bulk of the total, at over 700,000 copies. The song has been widely acclaimed and is ranked by

Acclaimed Music Acclaimed Music is a website created by Henrik Franzon, a statistician from Stockholm, Sweden in September 2001. Franzon has statistically aggregated hundreds of published lists that rank songs and albums into aggregated rankings by year, deca ...

as the 42nd most-acclaimed song of all time. It was remixed by the band twice, in 1988 and 1995. The 1988 remix reached number 1 in New Zealand and the top 10 in other countries. The song has been covered by bands including Orgy,

Flunk Flunk is a Norway, Norwegian electronic music, electronic band consisting of producer Ulf Nygaard, guitarist Jo Bakke, vocalist Anja Øyen Vister, and bassist Ole Kristian Wetten. Drummer Erik Ruud played with the band between 2012 and 2020. ...

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester, taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine. They were formed by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. They released their debut album, '' New ...

, The Enemy and

Health Health, according to the World Health Organization, is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease and infirmity".World Health Organization. (2006)''Constitution of the World Health Organiza ...

. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 235 on Rolling Stone's "Top 500 Best Songs of All Time".

Background

"Blue Monday" was described by the BBC Radio 2 "Sold on Song" feature as "a crucial link between Seventies disco and the dance/house boom that took off at the end of the Eighties."

Synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

had been a major force in British popular music for several years, but "Blue Monday", with encouragement by the band's manager Rob Gretton, was a dance record that also exhibited influences from the New York club scene, particularly the work of producers such as Arthur Baker (who collaborated on New Order's follow-up single "Confusion"). The composition has been widely recognised to owe a debt to Gerry and the Holograms, a Manchester artist who released the track of the same name four years before Blue Monday.

Composition

"Blue Monday" was composed on a prototype-level homebrew "step-time" sequencer in binary code. It was originally written in the key of D, in Dorian mode, since there is never a B-flat in the song, and B-natural does occur in the melody (though sparingly). It contains a basic chord progression of Dm–F–C–Dm–G–C. The song has been labelled a "

classic" and described as cementing the group's movement from

post-punk Post-punk (originally called new musick) is a broad genre of punk music that emerged in the late 1970s as musicians departed from punk's traditional elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a variety of avant-garde sensibilities and non-roc ...

. "Still the best-selling 12" single of all time, "Blue Monday" cemented New Order's transition from post-punk to alternative dance with vivid sequencers" It has been noted as an example of the hi-NRG style of club music, as well. The song begins with a distinctive

semiquaver Figure 1. A 16th note with stem facing up, a 16th note with stem facing down, and a 16th rest. Figure 2. Four 16th notes beamed together. In music, a 1/16, sixteenth note (American) or semiquaver (British) is a note played for half the dura ...

kick drum intro, programmed on an

Oberheim DMX The DMX is a programmable digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim. It was introduced in 1980 at a list price of and remained in the company's product line until the mid-1980s. The Oberheim DMX was the second digital drum machine ever to b ...

drum machine. Keyboardist

fades in a sequenced melody, out of sync with the beat because she had forgotten to input a note into the sequencer. The verse section features the song's signature throbbing synth bassline, played on a

Moog Source The Moog Source is a monophonic Z80 microprocessor-controlled analog synthesizer manufactured by Moog Music from 1981 to 1985. The Source was Moog's first synthesizer to offer patch memory storage. The design was also the first (and only) Moog sy ...

, overlaid with

's bass guitar leads. The synth bassline was sequenced on a Powertran Sequencer home built by Sumner. Bernard Sumner delivers the lyrics in a

deadpan Deadpan, dry humour, or dry-wit humour is the deliberate display of emotional neutrality or no emotion, commonly as a form of comedic delivery to contrast with the ridiculousness or absurdity of the subject matter. The delivery is meant to be blun ...

manner. "Blue Monday" is an atypical hit song in that it does not feature a standard verse-

chorus Chorus may refer to: Music * Chorus (song) or refrain, line or lines that are repeated in music or in verse * Chorus effect, the perception of similar sounds from multiple sources as a single, richer sound * Chorus form, song in which all verse ...

structure. After a lengthy introduction, the first and second verses are contiguous and are separated from the third verse only by a brief series of sound effects. A short breakdown section follows the third verse, which leads to an extended outro. The band stated that the song was written in response to crowd disappointment at the fact that they never played

encore An encore is an additional performance given by performers after the planned show has ended, usually in response to extended applause from the audience.Lalange Cochrane, in ''Oxford Companion to Music'', Alison Latham, ed., Oxford University Pres ...

s. The song was planned to allow them to return to the stage, press play on a synthesiser and leave the stage again, but while writing the song it evolved into a project that the band quite liked, and it was turned from an experiment into a single. However, the band since have become noted for playing "Blue Monday" as an encore. "Blue Monday" was influenced by several songs. Hook said the song was "stolen" from the

Donna Summer LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the " Queen of Disco", while her mus ...

song "Our Love" from the '' Bad Girls'' album. Bernard Sumner said part of the arrangement came from "

Dirty Talk Erotic talk, also known as dirty talk, gross talk, love talk, naughty talk, sexting, sexy talk, talking dirty, or talking gross is the practice of using explicit word imagery to heighten sexual excitement before and during (or instead of) physica ...

", by Klein + M.B.O, the synthesised bassline from

Sylvester Sylvester or Silvester is a name derived from the Latin adjective ''silvestris'' meaning "wooded" or "wild", which derives from the noun ''silva'' meaning "woodland". Classical Latin spells this with ''i''. In Classical Latin, ''y'' represented a ...

's "

You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" is a 1978 song by American disco/ R&B singer Sylvester. It was written by James Wirrick and Sylvester, and released as the second single from Sylvester's fourth album, ''Step II'' (1978). The song was already a l ...

". Hook's bassline was derived from an

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone (; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpeter who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 scores for cinema and television, as well as more than 100 classica ...

soundtrack, ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' ( it, Per qualche dollaro in più) is a 1965 Spaghetti Western film directed by Sergio Leone. It stars Clint Eastwood and Lee Van Cleef as bounty hunters and Gian Maria Volonté as the primary villain. German actor K ...

'': Hook said "I stole it" after watching the film of the same name in the studio. In the ''Guardian,'' Clinton Heylin included "Blue Monday" on a list of "10 classic stolen pop songs" and said that the starting point for the song came from "Gerry and the Holograms", the 1979 title track by the novelty group of the same name, but Sumner denied this. Some rhythmic and synthesizer elements of the song had been used by the band in an earlier composition, "

Video 5 8 6 "Video 5 8 6", originally titled "Prime 5 8 6",Johnson, Mark. ''An Ideal For Living: An History of Joy Division.'' London: Bobcat Books, 1984. Pg. 103.Flowers, Claude. ''New Order + Joy Division: Dreams Never End.'' London: Omnibus Press, 1995. ...

", in 1982, which evolved into the track "5 8 6", appearing on the band's 1983 album '' Power, Corruption & Lies''. The song uses a sample of

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, "power station") is a German band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk were among the first successful acts to popularize the ...

's "

Uranium Uranium is a chemical element with the symbol U and atomic number 92. It is a silvery-grey metal in the actinide series of the periodic table. A uranium atom has 92 protons and 92 electrons, of which 6 are valence electrons. Uranium is weak ...

Packaging

The 1983 edition artwork is designed to resemble a inch

. The sleeve does not display either the group name nor song title in plain English anywhere; the only text on the sleeve is "FAC SEVENTY THREE" on the spine. Instead the legend "FAC 73 BLUE MONDAY AND THE BEACH NEW ORDER" is represented in

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" and ''Power, Corruption & Lies'' are two of four Factory releases from this time period to employ the colour code, the others being " Confusion" by New Order and '' From the Hip'' by Section 25. The single's original

sleeve A sleeve ( ang, slīef, a word allied to ''slip'', cf. Dutch ) is the part of a garment that covers the arm, or through which the arm passes or slips. The sleeve is a characteristic of fashion seen in almost every country and time period, acro ...

, created by Factory designer Peter Saville and

, was die-cut with a silver inner sleeve. It cost so much to produce that

actually lost money on each copy sold. Matthew Robertson's ''Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album'' notes that " e to the use of die-cutting and specified colours, the production cost of this sleeve was so high that the single sold at a loss." Tony Wilson noted that it lost 5p per sleeve "due to our strange accounting system"; Saville noted that nobody expected "Blue Monday" to be a commercially successful record at all, so nobody expected the cost to be an issue." In ''Shadowplayers: The Rise and Fall of Factory Records'', Saville states "I am so bored with this story. We didn't even know how many of these expensive covers were ever made anyway." Robertson also noted that "later reissues had subtle changes to limit the cost" (the diecut areas being replaced with printed silver ink).''

24 Hour Party People ''24 Hour Party People'' is a 2002 British biographical comedy-drama film about Manchester's popular music community from 1976 to 1992, and specifically about Factory Records. It was written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and directed by Michael Win ...

'' DVD, director's commentary
Wilson interviews Saville
/ref> Saville commented in 2013 that the printers "banged out a cheaper version. I don't know how many thousands were sold

he original He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

way, or whether Factory were charged the full price for something they didn't get, which would be very Factory." Peter Saville Associates charged Factory £538.20 for the sleeve design. The artwork was so late that Saville sent it straight to the printer, unreviewed by either the band or the label. The 1988 and 1995 versions were packaged in conventional sleeves.

Music videos

A music video for a shortened version of the original song was created in 1983, featuring military clips with false colour, simple computer-generated graphics such as colour blocks and geometric lines, digitised video of band members at very low resolution and framerate, and a short appearance of the game ''

Zaxxon is an isometric shooter arcade game, developed and released by Sega in 1982, in which the player pilots a ship through heavily defended space fortresses. Japanese electronics company Ikegami Tsushinki is also credited for having worked on the d ...

'' (reportedly the Apple II port). The colour blocks were created using Peter Saville's colour-coded alphabet. On the Australian show ''

Rage Rage may refer to: * Rage (emotion), an intense form of anger Games * Rage (collectible card game), a collectible card game * Rage (trick-taking card game), a commercial variant of the card game Oh Hell * ''Rage'' (video game), a 2011 first-per ...

'', a video was shown containing footage taken from their BBC ''

Top of the Pops ''Top of the Pops'' (''TOTP'') is a British Record chart, music chart television programme, made by the BBC and originally broadcast weekly between 1January 1964 and 30 July 2006. The programme was the world's longest-running weekly music show ...

'' performance with the studio track dubbed over it. The music video for "Blue Monday '88" appears on the ''

Substance Substance may refer to: * Matter, anything that has mass and takes up space Chemistry * Chemical substance, a material with a definite chemical composition * Drug substance ** Substance abuse, drug-related healthcare and social policy diagnosis ...

'' video collection (released as a companion to the album of the same name). The video features sketches by photographer William Wegman and his

Weimaraner The Weimaraner ( ) is a large dog that was originally bred as a hunting dog in the early 19th century. Early Weimaraners were used by royalty for hunting large game such as boar, bear and deer. As the popularity of large game hunting began to d ...

dog named Fay Ray doing balancing acts intercut with hand-drawn animation by

Robert Breer Robert Carlton Breer (September 30, 1926 – August 11, 2011) was an American experimental filmmaker, painter, and sculptor. Life and career "A founding member of the American avant-garde," Breer was best known for his films, which combine ...

. 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 book A flip book, flipbook, flicker book, or kineograph is a booklet with a series of images that very gradually change from one page to the next, so that when the pages are viewed in quick succession, the images appear to animate by simulating moti ...

s (tying into the hand-drawn animation sequences). In September 2012, New Order headlined a festival at Portmeirion in

North Wales , area_land_km2 = 6,172 , postal_code_type = Postcode , postal_code = LL, CH, SY , image_map1 = Wales North Wales locator map.svg , map_caption1 = Six principal areas of Wales common ...

and festival organisers recruited the support of the local Brythoniaid Male Voice Choir to produce a cover version and accompanying video.

Legacy

In 2022, it was included in the list "The story of ''NME'' in 70 (mostly) seminal songs", at number 21: Mark Beaumont wrote that with this song, "Britain’s formative alternative dance culture found its way" in the mainstream and "stayed there until the acid house explosion obliterated clubland".

Releases

"Blue Monday" has been a hit several times in the UK. In 1983, it charted 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", whose lyrics include the line "I thought I told you to leave me when I walked down to the beach") was featured on the UK version of the group's subsequent album, '' Power, Corruption & Lies''. Despite selling well it was not eligible for an official gold disc because

was not a member of the

British Phonographic Industry British Phonographic Industry (BPI) is the British recorded music industry's Trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards, the Classic BRIT Awards, National Album Day, is home to the Mercury Prize, and co-owns the Official Charts Company with th ...

association. According to the

Official Charts Company The Official Charts (legal name: The Official UK Charts Company Limited) is a British inter-professional organization that compiles various "official" record charts in the United Kingdom, Ireland and France. In the United Kingdom, its charts inc ...

, its total sales stand at 1.16 million in the United Kingdom alone, and "Blue Monday" came 69th in the all-time UK best-selling singles chart published in November 2012. New Order appeared on the BBC's ''

'', on 31 March 1983, to promote the song. New Order insisted on performing "Blue Monday" live. The performance was dogged by technical problems, and was unrepresentative of the recording. In the words of drummer Stephen Morris, "Blue Monday was never the easiest song to perform, anyway, and everything went wrong. The synthesisers went awry. It sounded awful". In 1985, "Blue Monday" and "Thieves Like Us" were officially released in Poland as a 7" single in a different sleeve by Tonpress under license from Factory Records and sold over 50,000 copies and reached number 5 on the year-end single chart. In 1988, "Blue Monday" was officially remixed by Quincy Jones and John Potoker under the title "Blue Monday 1988" (with the instrumental flip being titled "Beach Buggy"); Jones was the owner of Qwest Records, New Order's record label in the United States. The single reached number 3 on the British chart, number 4 on the Australian chart, and topped the dance chart in the United States. A further official remix/reissue in 1995, with a mix by

Hardfloor Hardfloor is a German electronic music duo, consisting of Oliver Bondzio and Ramon Zenker. Their most famous track is "Acperience 1" (often titled more simply as "Acperience" on many compilation albums) and chosen by Feargal Sharkey as one of h ...

as the lead track, also made the British Top 20. The song has sold 1.21 million copies in the UK as of October 2015. Overall it has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. The single was not originally on ''Power, Corruption & Lies'', but was included on the Gap Records Australia/New Zealand cassette version (though listed only on the cassette itself, not on the card) and the 1986 Qwest Records US CD version. In 2008, Collector's Editions of all New Order's 1980s albums were released, with remastered versions of the original 12" "Blue Monday" and its B-side "The Beach" appearing on the Collector's Edition of ''Power, Corruption & Lies''. Meanwhile, two versions of "Blue Monday '88" appear on the Collector's Edition of 1986's ''

Brotherhood Brotherhood or The Brotherhood may refer to: Family, relationships, and organizations * Fraternity (philosophy) or brotherhood, an ethical relationship between people, which is based on love and solidarity * Fraternity or brotherhood, a mal ...

''. *1987: ''Substance 1987'' – Original 12" version *1994: ''Best of New Order'' – 1988 7" version *1995: ''Rest of New Order'' – Hardfloor Mix ote: some versions come with a disc of "Blue Monday" remixes/small> *2002: ''International'' – Original 12" version *2002: ''Retro'' – Original 12" version and Jam and Spoon Manuela Mix *2005: ''Singles'' – Original 12" version ote: this version omits the opening seconds/small> and 1988 7" version *2011: ''Total'' - Original 12" version *2016: ''Singles'' (2016 re-release) - Original 12" version and 1988 7" version Compilation appearances include *1996 '' The Best...Album in the World...Ever!'' - New edited version of 12" mix (runs at 6:45 length) *2001 '' Mixmag B!g Tunes'' - Original 12" version *2002 ''Electric Dreams'' - Original 12" version *2008 '' Anthems II 1991-2009'' - 1988 7" mix (mixed into " Chime" by Orbital) *2011 '' Arkives'' - Plastikman Remix *2021 ''NOW Yearbook 1983'' - Original 12" version

Media usage

* Sunkist TV Ad: In the mid 80's Sunkist paid New Order $200,000 USD to re-write the lyrics as, “How does it feel/When a new day has begun/When you’re drinking in the sunshine/Sunkist is the one,” and then used in a TV commercial. * BT Plus TV Ad, 2018. *

Volvo The Volvo Group ( sv, Volvokoncernen; legally Aktiebolaget Volvo, shortened to AB Volvo, stylized as VOLVO) is a Swedish multinational manufacturing corporation headquartered in Gothenburg. While its core activity is the production, distributio ...

TV Ad, 2021. * Wonder Woman 1984 trailer music cover by Sebastian Böhm

Track listing

Blue Monday Blue Monday 1988 Acid House Mixes By

(1988) Blue Monday-95 *"Blue Monday (Plutone Dub)" (4:46) was only made available on promo vinyl FAC73PL *Released in 2004.

Personnel

* Bernard Sumner – vocals, keyboards, programming *

– 6-string bass, electronic percussion * Stephen Morris – keyboards, programming *

– keyboards, programming

Charts

Weekly charts

"Blue Monday"

"Blue Monday 1988"

"Blue Monday-95"

Year-end charts

"Blue Monday"

"Blue Monday 1988"

Certifications

Cover versions

Orgy versions

"Blue Monday" was

covered Cover or covers may refer to: Packaging * Another name for a lid * Cover (philately), generic term for envelope or package * Album cover, the front of the packaging * Book cover or magazine cover ** Book design ** Back cover copy, part of co ...

by American

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music Heavy metal (or simply metal) is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the United Kingdom and United States. With r ...

band Orgy. It was released on 14 December 1998. Internationally, the song was a hit,Bessman, p. 25. appearing on music charts worldwide. It has been attributed with providing industrial and metal music with a fresh connection.

Background

In an interview with ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' guitarist

Amir Derakh Amir Davidson, professionally known as Amir Derakh, is an American musician and record producer. He is currently the guitarist and the synthesizer player for the band Julien-K, and was the guitarist for the band Dead by Sunrise. He was once the g ...

said that upon working on the song they "wanted to do the original 'Blue Monday' justice" and had expected more criticism. He went on to say that they felt lucky to have covered it and that they felt it could have been something that they had written.Hay, p. 84. The fact that their first major hit was a cover of the 1980s electronica/dance song did not bother the band. Their first official single release featured various versions of "Blue Monday" and upon the success of the song the band decided to include their previous single "Stitches" on the second release. With the label's support this release was an enhanced CD that featured the

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

for "Blue Monday" on 9 February 1999, which was in

QuickTime QuickTime is an extensible multimedia framework developed by Apple Inc., capable of handling various formats of digital video, picture, sound, panoramic images, and interactivity. Created in 1991, the latest Mac version, QuickTime X, is avai ...

format. "Blue Monday" has been made into several dance remixes, some which were produced to appeal to the underground dance club scene, and was even advertised under "Club Mix" 2000, a popular dance compilation series. The music video for "Blue Monday" also appeared on several music television stations, and the song was also released on vinyl.

Success

The song appeared on modern rock radio stations,Hay, p. 13. and was a hit on MTV; it appeared on MTV's alternative music program ''

120 minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the alternative music genre, that originally aired on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then aired on MTV's associate channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003. After its cancellation, MTV ...

'' and ''

TRL TRL or trl may refer to: Arts * Temporary Residence Limited, a record label * ''Total Request Live'', a former MTV show * TRL Awards (''Total Request Live''), an Italian music award Libraries * Tampines Regional Library, a regional library in Tamp ...

'', in which it debuted at number eight on 22 February 1999. The song was perceived as the band's gateway to success, allowing them to tour in Ozzfest. and in the Family Values Tour and led to the rerelease of the song "Stitches". The song appeared in ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' magazine's "Hits of the Year" for 1999.Kenneally (January 2000), p. 102. "Blue Monday" is also said to have helped pave the way for the

cyberpunk Cyberpunk is a subgenre of science fiction in a dystopian futuristic setting that tends to focus on a "combination of lowlife and high tech", featuring futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyber ...

trend, as best exemplified in the popularity of the 1999

science fiction film Science fiction (or sci-fi) is a film genre that uses speculative, fictional science-based depictions of phenomena that are not fully accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial lifeforms, spacecraft, robots, cyborgs, interstellar ...

'' The Matrix'', which appeared soon afterwards. In an interview of Joel Gallen in ''

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'' magazine, the music supervisors were discussing the use of Orgy's "Blue Monday" for a football scene in ''

Not Another Teen Movie ''Not Another Teen Movie'' is a 2001 American teen parody film directed by Joel Gallen and written by Mike Bender, Adam Jay Epstein, Andrew Jacobson, Phil Beauman, and Buddy Johnson. It features an ensemble cast including Chyler Leigh, Chris Eva ...

'' (2001), among others. Stating that the song "had energy", they eventually selected it for the movie, and it appeared in the soundtrack as well. "Blue Monday" charted internationally, some of which included ''

CMJ CMJ Holdings Corp. is a music events and online media company, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music Monthly'' and ''CMJ New Music Report''. Th ...

's'' "Commercial Alternative Cuts"''CMJ New Music Report'', p. 21. and ''Billboard's'' Alternative, Pop, and Dance song charts as well as others. It also appeared in ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...

'' and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis (businessman), Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print m ...

'' in 2000 as featured song clips.

Reception

Orgy's "Blue Monday" has been called the "aggro-fied-for-the-1990s" version of New Order's song,Kenneally (March 1999), p. 46. and it is considered to be part of a resurgence of new wave covers in gloomcore, along with Dope's cover of

Dead or Alive Dead or Alive most commonly refers to: * Dead or Alive (band), a British pop band * Dead or alive, a phrase on a wanted poster Dead or Alive may also refer to: Film and television * ''Dead or Alive'' (1921 film), an American silent film dir ...

's "

You Spin Me Round (Like a Record) "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" is a song by English pop band Dead or Alive, featured on their second album, '' Youthquake'' (1985). Released as a single in November 1984, it reached No. 1 in the UK in March 1985, taking 17 weeks to get ...

". Many critics attribute the success of the album ''Candyass'' to "Blue Monday", and some anticipated that Orgy would become a

one-hit wonder A one-hit wonder or viral hit is any entity that achieves mainstream popularity, often for only one piece of work, and becomes known among the general public solely for that momentary success. The term is most commonly used in regard to music p ...

, believing that it would be difficult for the band to follow up with another hit song. Many believed it to be their best song. Porter W. Richards of ''Sputnik'' felt that even though many of the songs off of ''Candyass'' sounded similar, "Blue Monday" was a great song that should not be overlooked. While the New Order song is viewed positively by the author of the comic book series '' Blue Monday'',

Chynna Clugston Chynna Clugston Flores (born August 19, 1975) is a freelance American comic book creator known for her manga-influenced teen comedy series '' Blue Monday''. Based in Coarsegold, Clugston Flores has been drawing comics since 1994 and has worked w ...

, in an interview she expresses dislike for the misconception that she borrowed the title for her book from Orgy's cover version rather than the original. In a January 2000 ''Spin'' interview,

Buckcherry Buckcherry is an American rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, ''Buckcherry'' (1999) and ''Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckcherry's first album ''Buckcherry'' was DreamWorks first a ...

's vocalist Josh Todd and guitarist Keith Nelson did not speak highly of the song, likening its sound to a

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

rip-off and calling the sound "mechanical".

Track listing

''Information on Blue Monday (single).'' :''Information on "Blue Monday" and "Stitches".''

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Flunk version

covered the song and released it as a single in 2002. In this version, Flunk slows down "Blue Monday", making it a popular hit for Flunk, based in part on the song's wide recognition. The lyrics become the focus for this version rather than the danceable beat (which was emphasized in the original version). The single received generally positive reviews by electronic music critics, but Mallory O'Donnell of ''

Stylus Magazine ''Stylus Magazine'' was an American online music and film magazine, launched in 2002 and co-founded by Todd L. Burns. It featured long-form music journalism, four daily music reviews, movie reviews, podcasts, an MP3 blog, and a text blog. Addi ...

'' commented that Flunk "only showed the paucity of melody" of the original New Order song. The song was subsequently remixed, with at least 7 remixes along with the original version available. The original release was on the 2002 EP titled ''Blue Monday''.

Appearances

*'' Walking Tall'' (2004) *''

Nancy Drew Nancy Drew is a Fictional character, fictional character appearing in several Mystery fiction, mystery book series, movies, and a TV show as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published ...

'' (2007)

2002 EP track listing

# "Blue Monday" # "Eight Days a Freak" # "Blue Monday" (Howard Maple Mess Up Mix)

Notes

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

External links

New Order discography
(includes images of sleeve)
How we made: New Order's Gillian Gilbert and designer Peter Saville on Blue Monday
{{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Monday (New Order Song) 1983 songs 1983 singles 1985 singles 1988 singles 1995 singles 1998 singles 1999 singles Hi-NRG songs Music videos directed by Gregory Dark New Order (band) songs Orgy (band) songs Song recordings produced by Josh Abraham Songs written by Bernard Sumner Songs written by Gillian Gilbert Songs written by Peter Hook Songs written by Stephen Morris (musician) Factory Records singles London Records singles Warner Records singles Reprise Records singles 1982 songs UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand