"Blue Monday" is a song by the English rock 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 surface, compa ...

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 (band), New Order, A Certain Ra ...

. It appears on certain cassette and CD versions of New Order's second studio album, '' Power, Corruption & Lies'' (1983). The track was written and produced by Gillian Gilbert,

Peter Hook Peter Hook (born 13 February 1956) is an English musician. He was the bassist and co-founder of the post-punk band Joy Division and its successor New Order. He often used the bass as a lead instrument, playing melodies on the high strings wi ...

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

Eurodisco Eurodisco (also spelled as Euro disco) is a genre of electronic dance music that evolved from disco in the middle 1970s, incorporating elements of pop music, pop and rock music, rock into a disco-like continuous dance atmosphere. Many Eurodisco ...

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

and

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

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. 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, a diskette, or a disk) is a 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 with a ...

. The cover features no words, but instead has code, invented by Saville, in the form of coloured blocks that contains the artist, song and label information. The original single made the top 10 in many countries. It reached number nine on the UK Singles Chart and spent 38 weeks in the top 75. It spent 186 weeks on the UK Independent Singles Chart, effectively selling for four years until the release of the ''

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

'' compilation on which it featured. The UK Indie Chart run was second only to "

Love Will Tear Us Apart "Love Will Tear Us Apart" is a song by English rock music, rock band Joy Division, released on 27 June 1980 as a non-album single. Its lyrics were inspired by lead singer Ian Curtis' marital problems and struggles with epilepsy. The single was r ...

" by

Joy Division Joy Division were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Salford in 1976. The group consisted of vocalist, guitarist and lyricist Ian Curtis, guitarist and keyboardist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris (musici ...

, 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. "Blue Monday" is the best-selling 12-inch single in history. 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. 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,

808 State 808 State are an English electronic music group formed in 1987 in Manchester by Graham Massey, Martin Price and Gerald Simpson. Taking their name from the Roland TR-808 drum machine and the "state of mind" the members shared, they released ...

, the Enemy and

Health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, p ...

. In 2021 and 2022, ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'' included it at numbers 235 and 18 in its lists of the "

500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring song ranking compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2 ...

" and "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time".

Background and writing

New Order was formed in 1980 by the former members of

, which split after the death of their singer,

Ian Curtis Ian Kevin Curtis (15 July 1956 – 18 May 1980) was an English singer, songwriter and musician. He was the lead singer, lyricist and occasional guitarist of the band Joy Division, with whom he released the albums ''Unknown Pleasures'' (197 ...

. They later recruited Gillian Gilbert as keyboardist and second guitarist, and began to explore new musical technology such as synthesisers. Oberheim_DMX

New Order wrote "Blue Monday" in their rehearsal room in Cheetham Hill, Manchester. It started as a response to their audience's disappointment that they never played encores. It would allow the band to return to the stage, press a button and the track would play by itself as an encore while the band was off stage. The band however found it difficult to synchronize all the elements properly and improvising on the drafts it evolved into a song. The synth bassline was performed 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 ...

and sequenced on a sequencer built by the singer, Bernard Sumner. An

Oberheim DMX The DMX is a programmable Digital data, digital drum machine manufactured by Oberheim Electronics, 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 se ...

drum machine was used for rhythm. The kick drum was recorded playing through a studio monitor to capture the room's natural

reverb In acoustics, reverberation (commonly shortened to reverb) is a persistence of sound after it is produced. It is often created when a sound is reflected on surfaces, causing multiple reflections that build up and then decay as the sound is a ...

. New Order bought an early sampler, the Emulator 1, and sampled choir sounds from

Kraftwerk Kraftwerk (, ) is a Germany, German Electronic music, electronic band formed in Düsseldorf in 1970 by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider. Widely considered innovators and pioneers of electronic music, Kraftwerk was among the first successful a ...

's "Uranium". Sumner and the drummer, Stephen Morris, learnt how to use the sampler by spending hours recording their flatulence. New Order worked before the advent of

MIDI Musical Instrument Digital Interface (; MIDI) is an American-Japanese technical standard that describes a communication protocol, digital interface, and electrical connectors that connect a wide variety of electronic musical instruments, ...

, and so enlisted the engineer Martin Usher to design a circuit to synchronise the synthesisers and drum machine. Usher introduced them to the DMX drum machine, which had outputs that could be sent to the other instruments. The sequence was programmed using

binary code A binary code represents plain text, text, instruction set, computer processor instructions, or any other data using a two-symbol system. The two-symbol system used is often "0" and "1" from the binary number, binary number system. The binary cod ...

. Gilbert wrote the sequence out by hand on a long roll of paper, and accidentally added an extra

rest REST (Representational State Transfer) is a software architectural style that was created to describe the design and guide the development of the architecture for the World Wide Web. REST defines a set of constraints for how the architecture of ...

, throwing the sequence slightly out of time; the band liked the effect and kept it in the song. New Order also reused some elements from their 1982 composition " Video 5 8 6". The bassist,

, cited

Giorgio Moroder Giovanni Giorgio Moroder (, ; born 26 April 1940) is an Italian composer and music producer. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Father of Disco", Moroder is credited with pioneering Euro disco and electronic dance music. His work ...

and Sparks as influences, and said the song was "stolen" from the

Donna Summer Donna 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 music ...

song " Our Love". Sumner cited Kraftwerk along with Cabaret Voltaire,

the Human League The Human League are an English synth-pop band formed in Sheffield in 1977. Initially an experimental electronic music, electronic outfit, the group signed to Virgin Records in 1979 and later attained widespread commercial success with their t ...

and OMD, and said that parts were taken from " Dirty Talk" by Klein + MBO and " You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)" by

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 ...

. Gilbert said Hook's bassline came from a film soundtrack by

Ennio Morricone Ennio Morricone ( , ; 10 November 19286 July 2020) was an Italian composer, Orchestration, orchestrator, conductor, trumpeter, and pianist who wrote music in a wide range of styles. With more than 400 film score, scores for cinema and televisi ...

, a theme from ''

For a Few Dollars More ''For a Few Dollars More'' () 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. Klaus Kinski plays a supporting role as a se ...

'' (1965).

Composition

"Blue Monday" 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 music that emerged in late 1977 in the wake of punk rock. Post-punk musicians departed from punk's fundamental elements and raw simplicity, instead adopting a broader, more experiment ...

. "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 Hi-NRG (pronounced "high energy") is a genre of uptempo disco or electronic dance music (EDM) that originated during the late 1970s and early 1980s. As a music genre, typified by its fast tempo, staccato hi-hat rhythms (and the four-on-the-flo ...

style of club music, and the 2004 edition of ''

The Rolling Stone Album Guide ''The Rolling Stone Album Guide'', previously known as ''The Rolling Stone Record Guide'', is a book that contains professional music reviews written and edited by staff members from ''Rolling Stone'' magazine. Its first edition was published in 1 ...

'' called it "the ultimate in flawlessly programmed, LSD-driven, push-button

dance-pop Dance-pop is a Music genre, genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1970s to early 1980s. It is generally uptempo music intended for nightclubs with the intention of being danceable but also suitable for contemporary hit ra ...

". The song begins with a semiquaver kick drum, followed by a sequenced melody. "Blue Monday" does not feature a standard verse- chorus 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 follows the third verse, which leads to an extended outro. "Blue Monday" was described by the

BBC Radio 2 BBC Radio 2 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It is the List of most-listened-to radio programs, most popular station in the United Kingdom with over 14 million weekly listeners. Since launching in 1967, the sta ...

"Sold on Song" feature as "a crucial link between Seventies

disco Disco is a music genre, genre of dance music and a subculture that emerged in the late 1960s from the United States' urban nightclub, nightlife, particularly in African Americans, African-American, Italian-Americans, Italian-American, LGBTQ ...

and the dance/house boom that took off at the end of the Eighties." Synth-pop 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.

Packaging

The 1983 edition artwork is designed to resemble a inch

. The sleeve does not display either the group name or 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

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 communicati ...

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 In psychology, confusion is the quality or emotional state of being bewildered or unclear. The term "acute mental confusion"

" by New Order and '' From the Hip'' by Section 25. The single's original

sleeve A sleeve (, 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, across a myri ...

, created by Factory designer Peter Saville and Brett Wickens, 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'' 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 originalway, 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 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, a brief amount of footage taken from the 1977 film ''

Close Encounters of the Third Kind ''Close Encounters of the Third Kind'' is a 1977 American science fiction film, science fiction drama film written and directed by Steven Spielberg, starring Richard Dreyfuss, Melinda Dillon, Teri Garr, Bob Balaban, Cary Guffey, and François ...

'', and a short appearance of the 1982 video game '' Zaxxon''. The colour blocks were created using Peter Saville's colour-coded alphabet. The music video for "Blue Monday '88" appears on the '' Substance'' 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 is a German breed of hunting dog of medium to large size, with history going back at least to the nineteenth century. It originated in the area of the city of Weimar (then in Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, now in the state of Thuringia), for which ...

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 ball A tennis ball is a small, hollow ball used in games of tennis and real tennis. Tennis balls are fluorescent yellow in Professional sports, professional competitions, but in Amateur sports, recreational play other colors are also used. Tennis bal ...

s, 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 Portmeirion (; ) is a folly* * * tourist village in Gwynedd, North Wales. It lies on the estuary of the River Dwyryd in the community (Wales), community of Penrhyndeudraeth, from Porthmadog and from Minffordd railway station. Portmeirion was d ...

North Wales North Wales ( ) is a Regions of Wales, region of Wales, encompassing its northernmost areas. It borders mid Wales to the south, England to the east, and the Irish Sea to the north and west. The area is highly mountainous and rural, with Snowdon ...

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

Legacy and influence

In the decades since its release, "Blue Monday" has been commonly cited as one of the greatest songs of all time. In 2015, ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. The paper covers music, arts, film, theater, culture, and other local news in the Los Angeles area. ''LA Weekly'' was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin (among others), ...

'' ranked it number 12 in their list of "The 20 Best Dance Music Tracks in History". In 2020, ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New Yor ...

'' ranked it number 27 in their list of "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time". In 2022, "Blue Monday" was included in the list "The story of ''

NME ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a "Rock music, rock inkie", the ''NME'' would be ...

'' 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". In 2021 and 2022, ''

'' included it at numbers 235 and 18 in its lists of the "

" and "200 Greatest Dance Songs of All Time". In 2025, ''

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 advertis ...

'' magazine ranked it number 15 in their "The 100 Best Dance Songs of All Time". Following its release, "Blue Monday" influenced

-producer Bobby Orlando, the Detroit techno scene and the synth-pop duo

Pet Shop Boys Pet Shop Boys are an English synth-pop duo formed in London in 1981. Consisting of vocalist Neil Tennant and keyboardist Chris Lowe, they have sold more than 100 million records worldwide and were listed as the most successful duo in UK music h ...

. In 2002,

Kylie Minogue Kylie Ann Minogue (; born 28 May 1968) is an Australian singer, songwriter, and actress. Frequently referred to as the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Princess of Pop", she has achieved recognition in both the music industry and fas ...

performed a mashup of "Blue Monday" and her hit single "

Can't Get You Out of My Head "Can't Get You Out of My Head" is a song recorded by Australian singer Kylie Minogue for her eighth studio album, ''Fever (Kylie Minogue album), Fever'' (2001). Parlophone, Parlophone Records released the song as the album's Single (music), ...

" entitled "Can't Get Blue Monday Out of My Head" at the Brit Awards. In 2007, "Blue Monday" was interpolated for the main riff of

Rihanna Robyn Rihanna Fenty ( ; born February 20, 1988) is a Barbadian singer, businesswoman, and actress. One of the List of music artists by net worth, wealthiest musicians in the world, List of awards and nominations received by Rihanna, her vario ...

's song " Shut Up and Drive", with the four members of New Order receiving a co-writing credit for the song.

Releases

"Blue Monday" has been a hit several times in the UK. In 1983, it charted twice, initially reaching number 12 on the UK singles chart, 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 Music recording certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped, sold, or streamed a certain number of units. The threshold quantity varies by type (such as album, single, music video) and by nation or territory (see ...

because Factory Records was not a member of the

British Phonographic Industry BPI (British Recorded Music Industry) Limited, trading as British Phonographic Industry (BPI), is the British recorded music industry's trade association. It runs the BRIT Awards; is home to the Mercury Prize; co-owns the Official Charts C ...

association. According to the

Official Charts Company The Official UK Charts Company Limited (formerly Music Industry Chart Services Limited), trading as the Official Charts Company (OCC) or the Official Charts (formerly the Chart Information Network), is a British inter-professional organisation ...

, 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. As of March 2023 total consumed units across all formats have reached 2 million units sold in United Kingdom. New Order appeared on the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

's ''

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

'', 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 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 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.

Alternative versions

In the mid-80s, New Order accepted to use "Blue Monday" in a commercial for the soft drink Sunkist, with new lyrics: "How does it feel / When a new day has begun? / When you're drinking in the sunshine/ Sunkist is the one". In 1988, "Blue Monday" was remixed by

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

and John Potoker as "Blue Monday 1988". Jones was the owner of

Qwest Records Qwest Records was an American record label run by Quincy Jones. History Qwest Records was established by Quincy Jones in 1980 as a joint venture with Warner Bros. Records, although Jones remained under contract with A&M Records until 1981. Th ...

, 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 1995 reissue, with a mix by Hardfloor as the lead track, also made the UK top 20. The song has sold 1.21 million copies in the UK as of October 2015.

Compilations

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 1983

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''. * 1987: ''Substance 1987'' – Original 12" version * 1994: '' The Best of New Order'' – 1988 7" version * 1995: '' The 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 Retro style is imitative or consciously derivative of lifestyles, trends, or art forms from the past, including in music, modes, fashions, or attitudes. It has been argued that there is a nostalgia cycle in popular culture. Definition The term ...

'' – 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 ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was printe ...

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

Track listing

All tracks written by Gillian Gilbert,

, Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner. Blue Monday Blue Monday 1988 Blue Monday 1988 Blue Monday-95

Personnel

Personnel adapted from ''Song Exploder'' and ''Sound on Sound''. New Order * Bernard Sumner – vocals,

, programming,

vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...

– 6-string bass * Stephen Morris – keyboards, programming * Gillian Gilbert – keyboards, programming Technical * New Order – production * Michael Johnson – engineering * Barry Sage and Mark Boyne – assistants

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 ...

by American

alternative metal Alternative metal (also known as alt-metal) is a genre of heavy metal music that combines heavy metal with influences from alternative rock and other genres not normally associated with metal. Alternative metal bands are often characterized by ...

band Orgy. It was released on 14 December 1998. Internationally, the song was a hit,Bessman, p. 25. appearing on music charts worldwide.

Background

In an interview with ''

'' guitarist Amir Derakh 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 Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that came to prominence in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mos ...

/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 that integrates a song or an album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a music marketing device intended to ...

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

QuickTime QuickTime (or QuickTime Player) is an extensible multimedia architecture created by Apple, which supports playing, streaming, encoding, and transcoding a variety of digital media formats. The term ''QuickTime'' also refers to the QuickTime Pla ...

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 Modern rock is an umbrella term used to describe rock music that is found on college and commercial rock radio stations. Some radio stations use this term to distinguish themselves from classic rock, which is based in 1960s–1980s rock music. ...

radio stations,Hay, p. 13. and was a hit on

MTV MTV (an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable television television channel, channel and the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group sub-division of the Paramount Media Networks division of Paramount Global. Launched on ...

; it appeared on MTV's

alternative music Alternative music may refer to the following types of music: *Independent music *Alternative rock *Alternative pop *Alternative R&B *Neo soul, sometimes known as alternative soul *Alternative reggaeton *Alternative hip hop *Alternative dance *Alter ...

programs ''

120 Minutes ''120 Minutes'' is a television program in the United States dedicated to the Alternative rock, 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 it ...

'' and '' TRL'', 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 Ozzfest was an annual music festival tour of the United States and sometimes Europe and later Japan, featuring performances by many heavy metal music, heavy metal and hard rock musical groups. It was founded by Sharon Osbourne and her husband O ...

. and in the Family Values Tour and led to the rerelease of the song "Stitches". The song appeared in '' Spin'' 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 said to focus on a combination of "low-life and high tech". It features futuristic technological and scientific achievements, such as artificial intelligence and cyberwa ...

trend, as best exemplified in the popularity of the 1999 science fiction film ''

The Matrix ''The Matrix'' is a 1999 science fiction film, science fiction action film written and directed by the Wachowskis. It is the first installment in the The Matrix (franchise), ''Matrix'' film series, starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne, Ca ...

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

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

'' magazine, the music supervisors were discussing the use of Orgy's "Blue Monday" for a football scene in the film '' Not Another Teen Movie'' (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, online media company and a distributor of up and coming music CDs, originally founded in 1978, which ran a website, hosted an annual festival in New York City, and published two magazines, ''CMJ New Music ...

''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 continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...

'' and ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly news magazine based in New York City. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely distributed during the 20th century and has had many notable editors-in-chief. It is currently co-owned by Dev P ...

'' 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 by

hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...

bands, along with Dope's cover of

Dead or Alive A wanted poster (or wanted sign) is a poster distributed to let the public know of a person whom authorities wish to apprehend. They generally include a picture of the person, either a photograph when one is available or of a facial composite ...

's " You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)". 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 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 performers with ...

, believing that it would be difficult for the band to follow up with another hit song. Many critics believed it to be their best song. While the New Order song is viewed positively by the author of the comic book series '' Blue Monday'', Chynna Clugston, 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 hard rock band from Anaheim, California, formed in 1995. The band released two albums, ''Buckcherry (album), Buckcherry'' (1999) and ''Time Bomb (Buckcherry album), Time Bomb'' (2001), before dissolving in 2002. Buckche ...

'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 (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

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

Flunk 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 appearing in several mystery book series, movies, video games, and TV shows as a teenage amateur sleuth. The books are ghostwriter, ghostwritten by a number of authors and published under the collective pseudo ...

'' (2007) * '' Wonder Woman 1984'' (2020)

2002 EP track listing

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

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
* * Official Lyric * - analysis of the song's samples, instrumentation, and recording techniques {{DEFAULTSORT:Blue Monday (New Order Song) 1982 songs 1983 singles 1985 singles 1988 singles 1995 singles 1998 singles 1999 singles New Order (band) songs Orgy (band) songs Hi-NRG songs Music videos directed by Gregory Dark Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time 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 UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles Number-one singles in New Zealand Eurodisco songs