New Order - "Blue Monday 1988"

(Debuted April 30, 1988, Peaked #68, 10 Weeks on the Chart)

"Blue Monday" was a single New Order originally released in 1983. At the time, it was a U.K. hit but failed to reach the Hot 100 in the U.S. At seven minutes, it was a little bit longer than most hit singles of its day. However, its success in America was limited to the clubs.

In 1988, after New Order had reached the Top 40 with "True Faith," the band (or, more succinctly, the band's record company) released a remixed version of the hit in hopes it would find a bigger audience. This time, it made the pop charts but missed the Top 40. However, it was a big hit among the club scene once again. It was used again years later during a club scene in the film The Wedding Singer.

New Order rose out of the ashes of the group Joy Division after that band's lead singer Ian Curtis killed himself in 1980. Rather than continue the post-punk sound of the old lineup, they established themselves as an electronic band that used a blend of New Wave and dance music by bringing in Gillian Gilbert to play synthesizers and sequencers. The resulting sound made them quite influential during the 1980s even if they didn't have the list of hit records to show for it.

In a bit of trivia that only a musician may recognize, it seems that when New Order was recording the original version of "Blue Monday," Gilbert brought in the sequencer at the wrong time, which gave it a delayed start after the electric drums began. However, the band felt the error gave some charm to the single and kept it that way.