THE 1000 BEST SONGS IN THE WORLD EVER.

917-Killers-Mr. Brightside.

2004-Number 10 single.

Best Bit-At 0.58. ‘Always look on the (Mr.) Brightside of life.

The Killers were formed in Las Vegas, Nevada, United States, after Brandon Flowers (lead vocals, keyboards, and bass) had answered an advertisement placed by Dave Keuning (lead guitar) in the entertainment newspaper the ‘Las Vegas Weekly.’ After the pair realised that they could work together, they were soon joined by Mark Stoermer, (bass) and Ronnie Vannucci, (drums) and the group became official in August 2002. Prior to settling on this line up three others had been members for a short period between 2001-2002. The bands name was derived from a logo on the bass drum of a fictitious band portrayed in the music video for the 2001 UK Number 8 hit single ‘Crystal,’ by the English Rock band New Order (see also best songs 885 and 619.)

The Killers are one of the best selling acts of the 21st Century, with sales in excess of 22 million records sold worldwide. To date they have released seven studio Albums between 2004-2021, and 38 singles between 2003-2022. In America on Billboard all of their Albums have made the top 10, with ‘Wonderful. Wonderful,’ (2017) reaching Number 1, while in the UK, all seven Albums have topped that chart. In America on Billboard on the Hot 100 singles chart, three of their songs have made the top 40 with ‘Mr. Brightside’ charting the highest at Number 10. In the UK, 13 of their singles have reached the top 40, with ‘When You Were Young,’ peaking the highest at Number 2 in 2006. Away from the Killers all four members have also been involved in other projects, with Brandon Flowers releasing two solo studio Albums in 2010 and 2015, as well as seven singles, which include ‘Crossfire,’ that made Number 8 in the UK in 2010. Dave Keuning has also issued two solo studio Albums, (2019 and 2021) while Ronnie Vannucci Jr. has released two Albums with his side project ‘Big Talk,’ in 2011, and 2015, and Mark Stoermer has issued three solo Albums, between 2011-2017.

‘Mr. Brightside’ was the debut single from the Killers, it was co-written by Brandon Flowers, and Dave Keuning, with the production credited to the Killers. ‘Mr. Brightside’ was first released in 2003 without success, but after the release of the Killers debut studio Album ‘Hot Fuss’ in September 2003, ‘Mr. Brightside’ was re-issued in 2004, and charted as high as Number 10 on both sides of the Atlantic. In total there were four singles released from that debut Album, which has gone on to sell in excess of 5 million copies worldwide.

When Keuning first met Flowers, Keuning had already written the music that would become ‘Mr. Brightside, and Flowers added the lyrics based on his own true life experience. ‘Mr. Brightside’ is a song about a man who suspects that his significant other is cheating on him, and his thoughts are running riot, as he imagines what she is getting up to with another man. He knows his emotions are a mixture of jealousy and paranoia, but he also knows that when he comes out the other end, things will look brighter. Brandon Flowers has said,’Lyrically, it’s about an old girlfriend of mine. All the emotions in the song are real. When I was writing the lyrics, my wounds from it were still fresh. I am Mr. Brightside! But I think that’s the reason the song has persisted, because it’s real. People pick up on those things, and that goes all the way down to the production, we recorded it in a couple of hours, but it just sounds right, you know.’

‘Mr. Brightside’ can boast some pretty impressive statistics, especially for a song that has never charted above Number 10 in America or the UK. As of February 23rd, 2023, ‘Mr. Brightside’ had spent a staggering 349 weeks (6 years and 8 months) within the UK top 100 singles chart, which is far in excess of any other track. The explanation for this has to be that it is played at celebrations all over the country every week, leading to people continuously downloading it. Amazingly because of this, and even so it first came out in 2003, it officially became the 12th best selling song of the decade 2010-2019. Part of the songs structure, the (‘calling a cab’) section has both a musical and textual similarity to the middle section of the song ‘Queen Bitch,’ (1971) from David Bowie’s (1947-2016) album Hunky Dory. In turn Bowie would have been the first to admit that ‘Queen Bitch’ was heavily influenced by the ‘Velvet Underground,’ and in particular Lou Reed (1942-2013.)

‘Now I’m falling asleep, and she’s calling a cab. While 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, but she’s touching his chest now.’