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Hey there welcome to another episode of Muzikpress. My name is Twan and in this week's episode
I'm gonna talk about a track that came out in March 1983. It's one of the best sold 12-inch singles of all time.
I'm talking about New Order's "Blue Monday".
So, in this week's vlog I'm gonna tell you something more about this legendary track. Enjoy!
“New Order” was formed in 1980 in Manchester in the United Kingdom.
The band was formed shortly after the suicide of Ian Curtis,
who was the lead singer and frontman of rock group “Joy Division”.
Ian was only 23 when he ended his life…
The original members of New Order
were singer Bernard Sumner,
bass player Peter Hook
and drummer Stephen Morris.
Later keyboard player Gillian Gilbert, joined the band as well.
New Order was a band, that integreated post-punk with electronic- and dance music,
which made them one of the most influential bands of the 1980s.
In 1983 New Order released “Blue Monday”, which was their fifth single.
According to band member Bernard Sumner, the track is influenced by a few other songs;
The arrangment came from the track “Dirty Talk” by Klein + M.B.O.
The beat came from the Donna Summer track “Our Love”.
The choir sound was a sample from “Uranium” by Kraftwerk.
And the bassline inspiration comes from the Sylvester track “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)”.
The lyrics of the track come from the hands of Bernard Sumner, who was under the influence of LSD while making the song.
The title of the track, isn’t mentioned in the song at all, which is true of many New Order songs.
The title comes from an illustration in a book which Stephen Morris was reading at that time;
“Breakfast Of Champions” by Kurt Vonnegut.
The packaging of the original 1983 release is designed to resamble a 5¼ floppy disk.
You won’t find the actual written name of the band and the title of the track on the sleeve.
However, it is on the sleeve, but represented by a series of coloured blocks.
The key to decipher this code, was printed on the back sleeve of the New Order album
“Power, Corruption & Lies”
Which came out later in the same year.
But…. “Blue Monday” can not be found on that album funny enough.
The single’s original sleeve cost so much to produce, that Factory Records actually lost money on each copy sold.
Due to the use of the die-cut sleeve, with the silver inner sleeve and the specified colours, the production costs of the sleeve was
so high that the single sold at a loss.
Later reissues of the track had some small changes to limit the cost.
New Order was the flagship band for Manchester based indepentent record label Factory Records
and its nightclub / music venue “The Haçienda”, which became famous in the 80’s and early 90’s.
The club was mainly supported by record sales from New Order.
The venue is associated with the rise of acid house and rave music.
In October 2009 Peter Hook published his book “How not to run a club”, in which he talks about his time as co-owner of “The Haçienda”.
Fun fact: In 2010 Peter Hook had 6 bass guitars made, using actual wood from the club’s dancefloor.
The fret boards have been made from dancefloor planks, so they still have stilletto marks and cigarette burns.
“Blue Monday” is also one of the longest charting singles ever; it is 7 minutes and 25 seconds.
The track wasn’t issued as a traditional 7 Inch until the year 1988, which helped boosting the sales of the 12 Inch.
Despite selling over a million copies, the band never got an official gold disc for it in the UK,
because their record company Factory Records, was not a member
of the British Phonographic Industry association.
However, the track is in the Top 100 of best selling singles in the UK of all-time.
And “Blue Monday” sold over 3 million copies worldwide.
Plus it won the award for “best single” in 1983 at the NME Awards.
Besides a lot of unofficial remixes and bootlegs, there are official remixes done
by Quincy Jones
808 State
Jam & Spoon
Hardfloor
JamX & DeLeon aka Dumonde and many others...
All right, that was it, my vlog about "Blue Monday" by New Order. Thank you for watching.
I hope you enjoyed the vlog. If you did, make sure to give this video a like.
Leave a comment in the comment section below.
And very important, make sure to subscribe to my channel for more content!
Once again, thank you for watching and until next time! Bye bye!
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