New Order – Blue Monday

“Blue Monday” – Single by New Order
B-side “The Beach” (12-inch version) / “Thieves Like Us” (7-inch version)
Released 7 March 1983
Label Factory (12-inch version) / Tonpress (7-inch version)
Songwriters Gillian Gilbert,Peter Hook,Stephen Morris,Bernard Sumner
Producer New Order
Charted No.9 in UK; No.2 in West Germany; No.4 in Austria; No.4 in Ireland

“Blue Monday” is a eurodisco, synth-pop and alternative dance 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 5+1⁄4-inch floppy disk. 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.

New Order was formed in 1980 by the former members of Joy Division, which split after the death of their singer, Ian Curtis. They later recruited Gillian Gilbert as keyboardist and second guitarist, and began to explore new musical technology such as synthesiser.

The title is not mentioned in the lyrics, which is true of many New Order songs. The band took the song’s name from an illustration in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions, which Stephen Morris was reading. One of its illustrations read: “Goodbye Blue Monday,” referring to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives’ lives.

The bassist, Peter Hook, cited Kraftwerk, Giorgio Moroder and Sparks as influences, and said the song was “stolen” from the Donna Summer song “Our Love”. Sumner said parts were taken from “Dirty Talk” by Klein + MBO and “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” by Sylvester. Gilbert said Hook’s bassline came from a film soundtrack by Ennio Morricone, a theme from For a Few Dollars More (1965).