Blue Monday 30 today

A musical milestone happened to day and that was the release of the iconic 80s hit Blue Monday by New Order.

Considering the bands background as in the previous domain they were known as Joy Division who arrived on the back of the punk scene and were the originators of dark gothic music with guitar, bass and synths sound. The band carried on after the death of singer Ian Curtis and New Order was born.

The song clocked in at over 7 minutes and holds the record as the longest track to chart in the UK. On the back of that it also holds the record as the best selling 12" vinyl of all time before the digital revolution. Sales of the song stand at over 1 million.

The song relies heavily on technology rather than the traditional instruments with the beginning of the song relying on a drum machine and a sequencer then touched up with a synth bass line backed by Peter Hook Bass. The delivery of the lyrics are very deadpan which leads to the appeal of the song and compliment each other well as Barney possibly sounds like a machine in some quarters!.

The song was also the link between the early and late eighties where synth pop was on the up and towards the end of the eighties we had the explosion of dance and club music.

The song was released on Factory Records and had the distinct reference of FAC73 as the catalogue number. The packaging of the song was pure Factory and stuff of legends but the artwork on the sleeve was to represent a floppy disk which was created by Peter Saville, due to the production and high manufacturing cost of the sleeve it was widely reported that 5p was lost on every single bought and the band unfortunately did not see any return as any possible money made was invested in the Factory nightclub the Hacienda.

The song has been a hit in the UK on several occasion. Initially when released it hit number 12, then was re-released later in the year and peaked at number 9. In 1988 it was remixed and released and this occasion  during the height of the club scene it reached number 3. It was again released in 1995 and this time it faired less and peaked at number 17 in the UK singles chart.

Happy Birthday Blue Monday. To download the tune