How many chart-topping songs do you remember from 2004? How about five years ago? Last year? Six months ago? It’s difficult to remember. The charts have such a massive turnaround in tracks from week to week it can be confusing to remember who sings what.
With the high turnaround of singles in the charts, songs that stay there deserve recognition. One song has been in the charts for over 260 non-consecutive weeks. A song that didn’t perform that well when it was first released but gained momentum over time. This week The Beat Marches On to the 29th September 2004 when The Killers released ‘Mr Brightside’.
No matter what they say in interviews everyone who is in a band wants to have a hit single. A song where the crowd, whether it’s in front of 50 people or 5,000 people, sings the lyrics back to you as if they wrote it themselves. The Killers did this on their very first try.
Formed in 2001 by singer Brandon Flowers and guitarist David Keuning the Killers quickly recorded demo tracks to try to get a record deal. Inspired by the British synth-pop of the 1980s and indie bands of the 1990s there was one track that stood out compared to the others and it just needed some lyrics.
After watching Oasis play in his hometown of Las Vegas and seeing the crowd sing along to their hits ‘Wonderwall’ and ‘Don’t Look Back in Anger’ Brandon Flowers knew he wanted to write a song that the crowd sings along to. He didn’t know it yet, but this particular concert would be the inspiration for that very song. His girlfriend at the time (Flowers’s first serious relationship) who attended the concert with him was cheating on him. The singer caught her with another man in a local bar.
After being heartbroken by the whole incident Flowers went for a drive around Vegas listening to the demos he made with Keuning. Then when the backing track to what would become Mr. Brightside came on Brandon started to sing the lyrics that we all know and enjoy.
Quickly the two recorded a demo version of the song which they put on a later compilation album called ‘Direct Hits’. The song was angrier than the finished product due to how recent Flowers’s breakup was. This was the first song The Killers ever recorded.
The band released the single in 2003 as a limited 500 copy release on independent label Lizard King and even though it is the longest-running UK chart single, it didn’t chart on its release. This was despite getting significant radio plays from DJs Steve Lamacq and Zane Lowe with the former commenting “There’s something about that rousing sort of rock n roll that’s absent these days”
Even though the first single released didn’t set the charts on fire record labels saw the potential for the band and they were signed to Island Records in the US (they were still contracted to Lizard King in the UK) They released their second single ‘Somebody Told Me’ Which started to break into the UK top 40, then using the momentum they decided to re-release ‘Mr Brightside’. This time the song did significantly better.
For this release, the song got a new remix and the band recorded a new music video. The changes worked as ‘Mr Brightside’ reached number 10. The Killers were getting high plaudits from the music press and were getting famous fans such as one of Singer Brandon Flowers’s idols, Morrissey.
Although Mr. Brightside only got to number 10 the song stuck around the charts for a while. When most songs drop in and out of the charts relatively quickly this one stuck around. But why? Why is this song the one we all love and adore compared to their other hits? I have a couple of theories:
The First theory has to do with the meaning of the song and how we all can relate to the lyrics. As mentioned earlier Mr Brightside’s lyrics are about singer Flowers going through a break-up with his first serious girlfriend. Most people have gone through this situation before and can relate to the feelings that the singer is going through. The paranoia of lines like ‘I’m falling asleep and she’s calling a cab // he’s having a smoke and she’s taking a drag // Now they’re going to bed and my stomach is sick // And it’s all in my head’ holds a place in fans hearts and university students as it’s about breaking up and most first major break-ups are during those years. Also, it’s easy to sing along to after a few drinks.
The second theory is about the musical structure of the song. The Killers were heavily influenced by the 1980s and 1990s British indie scene and although the song is a rock song, the added pop-friendly synthesizer sound which helped them stand out in a guitar-based musical shift in the early 2000s helped to gain an advantage over other bands in that era.
With the two theories and the modern charts including downloads and streams as well as traditional sales, Mr Brightside achieved the perfect storm for chart consistency. An ever-constant at some university dorm room or being played at your local pub it’s a song that looks like it will never go away. So far, the song has spent a total of 260 weeks (five years!) in the UK top 100 and looks like it won’t go away any time soon.
The Beat Marches On is a music blog written by Jimmy Whitehead. Jimmy has been blogging for six years specialising in Sports (especially American Football). If you want to follow Jimmy on Twitter: @Jimmy_W1987
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Websites used for research are:
Mr Brightside: The hit that just won’t die – BBC News
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