"I Don't Like Mondays" | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
![]() | ||||
Single by the Boomtown Rats | ||||
from the album The Fine Art of Surfacing | ||||
B-side | "It's All the Rage" | |||
Released | 13 July 1979 (UK) [1] October 1979 (US) [2] | |||
Recorded | Trident Studios | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 4:19 (LP) 3:47 (single/video) | |||
Label | Ensign (UK) Columbia (US) | |||
Songwriter(s) | Bob Geldof, Johnnie Fingers | |||
Producer(s) | Phil Wainman | |||
The Boomtown Rats singles chronology | ||||
| ||||
Music video | ||||
"I Don't Like Mondays" on YouTube | ||||
Audio | ||||
"I Don't Like Mondays" on YouTube |
"I Don't Like Mondays" is a song by Irish new wave group the Boomtown Rats about the Cleveland Elementary School shooting in San Diego. It was released in 1979 as the lead single from their third album, The Fine Art of Surfacing . The song was a number-one single in the UK Singles Chart for four weeks during the summer of 1979, [5] and ranks as the sixth-biggest hit of the UK in 1979. [6] Written by Bob Geldof and Johnnie Fingers,the piano ballad [7] was the band's second single to reach number one on the UK chart.
According to Geldof,he wrote the song after reading a telex report [8] at Georgia State University's campus radio station,WRAS,on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer,who fired at children in a school playground at Grover Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego,California,on 29 January 1979,killing two adults and injuring eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime;her explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day". [9] Her flippant response attracted a lot of media attention and inspired the song. [10] Geldof had been contacted by Steve Jobs to play a gig for Apple,inspiring the opening line about a "silicon chip". [8] The song was first performed less than a month later.
Geldof explained how he wrote the song:
I was doing a radio interview in Atlanta with Johnnie Fingers and there was a telex machine beside me. I read it as it came out. Not liking Mondays as a reason for doing somebody in is a bit strange. I was thinking about it on the way back to the hotel and I just said 'silicon chip inside her head had switched to overload'. [8] I wrote that down. And the journalists interviewing her said,'Tell me why?' It was such a senseless act. It was the perfect senseless act and this was the perfect senseless reason for doing it. So perhaps I wrote the perfect senseless song to illustrate it. It wasn't an attempt to exploit tragedy. [11]
Geldof had originally intended the song as a B-side,but changed his mind after the song was successful with audiences on the Rats' US tour. [11] Spencer's family tried to prevent the single from being released in the United States,but were unsuccessful. [11]
In later years,Geldof stated that he regretted writing the song because he "made Brenda Spencer famous". [12]
In 2019,Geldof and Fingers reached an agreement in their dispute over who wrote the song,until then credited solely to Geldof. Fingers received a financial settlement and co-credit. [13]
The song reached number one in the United Kingdom,Ireland,Australia and South Africa,and the Top 10 in several other countries. It was less successful in the US,reaching only number 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. [14]
In 1994,the song was re-released to promote the greatest-hits album Loudmouth. It then peaked at Number 38 in the UK singles chart. [15]
In the UK,the song won the Best Pop Song and Outstanding British Lyric categories at the Ivor Novello Awards. [16]
Weekly charts
| Year-end charts
|
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [43] | Gold | 75,000^ |
United Kingdom (BPI) [44] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
On 9 September 1981, Geldof was joined on stage by fellow Boomtown Rat Johnnie Fingers to perform the song for The Secret Policeman's Ball sponsored by Amnesty International. A recording of that performance appears on the 1982 album The Secret Policeman's Other Ball .
The Boomtown Rats performed the song for Live Aid at Wembley Stadium in 1985. This was the band's final major appearance. On singing the line, "And the lesson today is how to die", Geldof paused for 20 seconds while the crowd applauded the significance to those starving in Africa that Live Aid was intended to help.
At a concert in London in 1995, almost ten years later to the day, Bon Jovi covered the song after being joined on stage by Geldof at Wembley Stadium. This recorded performance features on Bon Jovi's live album One Wild Night Live 1985–2001 , as well as on the bonus 2-CD edition of These Days . Bon Jovi was again joined by Geldof for a performance of the song at The O2 Arena on 23 June 2010, the 10th night of their 12-night residency.
Bob Geldof performed the song solo at Live 8 in 2005. Using much of the musical equipment used by rock band Travis, who had just left the stage, Geldof decided on the "spur of the moment" to perform the song. His performance included the mid-song "how to die" pause famously added during Live Aid.
"I Don't Like Mondays" was subsequently covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album Strange Little Girls and later by G4 on their 2006 album Act Three .
A music video directed by David Mallet was used to promote the song. The video begins with the Boomtown Rats performing in a choir with children in the pews miming the chorus ("Tell Me Why?"). It then cuts to a family living room with the daughter just coming back from school but here the chorus is mimed by the other three band members to lead singer Bob Geldof. It then transitions to a soft piano fill with Geldof in front of a white background wearing sunglasses singing the final verse of the single version. After the line "And the lesson today is how to die" a series of jump cuts of Geldof quickly appear before he sings the last few lines. Afterwards the final chorus is presented this time mimed with the same children from the beginning. The clip ends with the Boomtown Rats looking at a chroma key image of the house in a grassy plain from the video's opening image.
One Wild Night Live 1985–2001 is the first live album by the American rock band Bon Jovi, released on May 22, 2001. The album includes live covers of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World" and performance of the Boomtown Rats' "I Don't Like Mondays", with a guest appearance by their lead singer Bob Geldof. The album charted at number 20 on the US Billboard 200 chart.
The Boomtown Rats are an Irish new wave band originally formed in Dublin in 1975. Between 1977 and 1985, they had a series of Irish and UK hits including "Like Clockwork", "Rat Trap", "I Don't Like Mondays" and "Banana Republic". The original line-up comprised six musicians; five from Dún Laoghaire in County Dublin; Gerry Cott, Simon Crowe (drums), Johnnie Fingers (keyboards), Bob Geldof (vocals) and Garry Roberts, plus Fingers' cousin Pete Briquette (bass). The Boomtown Rats broke up in 1986, but reformed in 2013, without Fingers or Cott. Garry Roberts died in 2022. The band's fame and notability have been overshadowed by the charity work of frontman Bob Geldof, a former journalist with the New Musical Express.
The Boomtown Rats is the debut album by Irish rock band The Boomtown Rats, released in September 1977. It included the Rats' first hit single, "Lookin' After No. 1", as well as the subsequent single, "Mary of the 4th Form". The album peaked at No. 18 in the UK Albums Chart in 1977.
A Tonic for the Troops is the second album by Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, released in June 1978.
The Fine Art of Surfacing is the third album by Irish rock band the Boomtown Rats, released in June 1979. The album peaked at No. 7 on the UK Albums Chart in 1979.
Mondo Bongo was the Boomtown Rats' fourth album. It peaked at No. 6 in the UK Albums Chart in February 1981, and No. 116 in the US Billboard 200. This is the band's last album to be recorded as six-piece band, as the guitarist Gerry Cott left the band shortly after the album's release.
The Boomtown Rats' Greatest Hits is a compilation album of The Boomtown Rats' singles on Columbia Records from 1979 to 1985.
"Rat Trap" is a single by The Boomtown Rats which reached No. 1 in the UK Singles Chart for two weeks in November 1978, the first single by a punk or new wave act to do so. It was written by Bob Geldof, and produced by Robert John "Mutt" Lange. It replaced "Summer Nights", a hit single for John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John from the soundtrack of Grease, at number one in the UK chart after the latter's seven-week reign.
Loudmouth – The Best of Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats is a 1994 greatest hits compilation album from Bob Geldof and the Boomtown Rats, consisting mostly of Boomtown Rats material but also some of Geldof's solo work. It peaked at No. 10 in the UK Albums Chart in July 1994.
In the Long Grass was the sixth studio album by The Boomtown Rats, released in 1984 in the UK and 1985 in the US. It was the band's last studio material for well over three decades until 2020's Citizens of Boomtown.
"Someone's Looking at You" was the third and final single from The Boomtown Rats' album The Fine Art of Surfacing. It peaked at number two on the Irish Singles Chart and number 4 on the UK Singles Chart in February 1980.
"Diamond Smiles" was the second single from The Boomtown Rats' album The Fine Art of Surfacing. It was the follow-up to their successful single "I Don't Like Mondays" and peaked at Number 13 in the UK Charts. The band has suggested that it might have fared better had it not been for a strike of lighting technicians on the powerful UK TV programme Top of The Pops at the time that the record was released and rising in the charts.
"Banana Republic" was the first single from The Boomtown Rats' album Mondo Bongo. It peaked at number three in the UK Singles Chart.
"Like Clockwork" is a single by The Boomtown Rats. It was the band's first to reach the Top Ten in the UK Singles Chart, peaking at No. 6.
"She's So Modern" is a song by The Boomtown Rats. It was the first single taken from the band's second album A Tonic for the Troops, whose title comes from a line in this song: "Charlie ain't no Nazi, she just likes to wear her leather boots, 'cos it's exciting for the veterans and it's a tonic for the troops". The single continued the Rats' high-energy post-punk/new wave sound that had typified earlier releases, but its fame would later be eclipsed by that of the band's more ballad-like global hit "I Don't Like Mondays". It has been described as "harmlessly smirking bubblegum a la The Knack".
"Mary of the 4th Form" is the second single by The Boomtown Rats. It was the first song taken from the band's first album The Boomtown Rats but the single is a different, re-recorded version from that on the album and 19 seconds longer. On French and Dutch releases of the single, "Do the Rat" was the A-side. The song's theme, of a teacher's sexual attraction to a pubescent girl, who behaves in an overtly sexual manner, was resonated in the Police song "Don't Stand So Close to Me".
"Lookin' After No. 1" is the first single by The Boomtown Rats. It appears on their first album The Boomtown Rats. The single was released in August 1977 after the band had performed a five-date tour supporting Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers. "Lookin' After No. 1" was the first so-called new wave single to be playlisted by the BBC and the Boomtown Rats subsequently became the first New Wave band to be offered an appearance on Top of the Pops, performing the song. The song reached number 2 on the Irish Singles Chart and spent nine weeks in the UK Singles Chart reaching a peak of number 11. Different covers were produced for releases in the Netherlands and Japan. Reviewer David Clancy described the song as having a "breakneck sneering selfishness".
The discography of Irish new wave group The Boomtown Rats consists of seven studio albums, seven compilation albums, 23 singles and three video albums. The Boomtown Rats' debut release was the 1977 single "Lookin' After No. 1" which was originally written by frontman Bob Geldof in 1975 while waiting for his local unemployment office to open in his native Dun Laoghaire then a major port an hour south of central Dublin. The group's next single "Mary of the 4th Form" was released in the same year, along with their self-titled debut album.
Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits is the fifth greatest hits album by Irish band The Boomtown Rats. It was released by Virgin EMI on 9 September 2013. The album was announced in June 2013 along with news of the band's UK and Ireland tour. Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits is the first album to be released since The Boomtown Rats reunited and the band's first greatest hits album since 2003's The Best of The Boomtown Rats. The album contains fourteen of the group's singles, as well as two new tracks, "The Boomtown Rats" and "Back To Boomtown". The digital version of the album features two additional songs. Following its release, Back to Boomtown: Classic Rats Hits debuted at number thirty-five on the Irish Albums Chart.
Citizens of Boomtown is the seventh studio album by Irish band The Boomtown Rats, released on 13 March 2020 via BMG. It is the band's first album since 1984's In the Long Grass, and the first album to be recorded as four-piece band, as the keyboardist Johnnie Fingers didn't return when the band was reunited in 2013. It is also the last album to feature longtime guitarist Garry Roberts who died on November 8, 2022.