It’s probably overstating the case to say that the release of Blue Monday transformed New Order’s career, but it certainly changed it. It put them in the Top 10 and on Top of the Pops for the first time. It spent 38 weeks in the Top 75, became the biggest-selling 12-inch single of all time and altered public perceptions of New Order: previously The Band That Used to Be Joy Division, the province of John Peel listeners, they now reached an audience that had never heard of Ian Curtis.
It also proved hugely influential, presaging the melding of alt-rock and dance that was to come later in the 80s, affecting the post-disco club music that had inspired it in the first place, providing a set text for techno producers and exerting a lasting grip on pop’s imagination. On its 40th birthday, here are the songs that fed into its creation – and the songs that wouldn’t have existed had Blue Monday not existed first.
Before Blue Monday
Ennio Morricone – For a Few Dollars More (1965)
Peter Hook had pioneered his bass-as-lead-instrument approach while in Joy Division but New Order’s increased use of sequenced bass lines caused him to refine his methods further: he claimed the sparse riffs of Blue Monday were inspired by the twanging lead guitar in the score for Sergio Leone’s classic spaghetti western after watching it in the studio.
Kraftwerk – Uranium (1975)
Given Blue Monday’s sample from one of its interstitial tracks and OMD’s evident obsession with its Orchestron-heavy sound, Radio-Activity – the least commercially successful album of Kraftwerk’s imperial phase – wielded a striking influence over British pop in the early 80s. Gillian Gilbert claimed New Order had previously tested their sampler by recording their own farts.
Sylvester – You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real) (1978)
Whenever influences on Blue Monday are discussed, someone will mention the synthesised riff of Gerry and the Holograms’ supremely irritating post-punk novelty track Gerry and the Holograms. Bernard Sumner has denied ever hearing it – in fairness, New Order have hardly been coy about the song’s other steals – suggesting it instead rooted in the octave-leaping bass line of Mighty Real.
Donna Summer – Our Love (1979)
The most famous aspect of Blue Monday is probably its stuttering rhythm track, borrowed wholesale from Our Love – also surely an influence on Temptation – from Donna Summer and producer Giorgio Moroder’s 1979 masterpiece Bad Girls. Intriguingly, that album’s final two tracks, Lucky and Sunset People, carry something of Blue Monday’s atmosphere – dancefloor-focused electronics topped with distant-sounding melancholy vocals.
Klein & MBO – Dirty Talk (1982)
Sumner has said that New Order were lifted out of their despondency following Ian Curtis’s death by listening to tapes a friend had compiled of Italo disco. By the time of Blue Monday, its sound had seeped into New Order’s own: listen to the chattering synths of Italian/US duo Klein & MBO’s biggest hit, a favourite of Sumner’s.
After Blue Monday
Bobby O – Giving Up (1984)
There’s a lovely circularity around the fact that a track influenced by Italo disco and hi-NRG ended up becoming an influence on hi-NRG. Its most vociferous disciple was producer Bobby Orlando, who released at least two singles that basically were Blue Monday with a new vocal – Divine’s Love Reaction and Eric’s Boy or Girl? Giving Up is less overt, but Blue Monday is still clearly in its DNA.
Kreem – Triangle of Love (1986)
An obscurity, but an intriguing one, that demonstrates the hold New Order exerted over the early Detroit techno scene. All the members of the genre-inventing Bellville Three – Derrick May, Juan Atkins and Kevin Saunderson – were involved in making Triangle of Love, a single audibly made in Blue Monday’s image: May’s dub mix is the pick of the multiple versions.
Pet Shop Boys – In the Night (1985)
Neil Tennant once noted that he “nearly burst into tears” the first time he heard Blue Monday, so similar was it to the sound the nascent Pet Shop Boys were striving towards. You can hear New Order’s influence on a lot of their 80s catalogue, but In the Night’s bassline makes it a particularly potent example.
Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get Blue Monday Out of My Head (2002)
Evidence of Blue Monday’s position within British pop culture: based on a covertly-released 12-inch by DJ and producer Erol Alkan, the mash-up of New Order’s immediately recognisable backing track and the melody from Can’t Get You Out of My Head subsequently went overground, becoming the hit of the night when Minogue performed it at the 2002 Brits.
Rihanna – Shut Up and Drive (2007)
New Order’s members got a co-writing credit on the follow-up to Umbrella, so obviously is its main riff based on Blue Monday. You get the feeling it was used not just for its immediately recognisable musical qualities, but as a signifier: with its taut machine rhythm and new wave guitars, the whole song is intent on evoking the early 80s.
