Happy 40th anniversary New Order's 'Blue Monday'

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This song is believed to be about either drug addiction, child abuse or a failed relationship. The line, "How does it feel? To treat me like you do," could refer to either the drugs or a partner.

The lyric was written by the group's guitarist/lead singer Bernard Sumner, who copped to being (along with the rest of the band) under the influence of LSD while making the song.

When Songfacts asked New Order's bass player Peter Hook for some insight, he said: "I don't think there is a great deal to tell behind the lyrics if I am going to be brutally honest! It was just one of those things where Barney just went for it and the rest was history."

"Blue Monday" is the best-selling 12-inch single of all time in Britain, a fact pointed out in the movie 24 Hour Party people, which chronicles the rise of their label, Factory Records. It is also one of the longest charting singles ever, at 7:25. The single wasn't issued as a traditional 7-inch until 1988, which helped boost sales of the 12-inch.

The title is not mentioned in the lyrics, which is true of many New Order songs. The band took the song's name from an illustration in the Kurt Vonnegut book Breakfast Of Champions, which Stephen Morris was reading. One of its illustrations read: "Goodbye Blue Monday," referring to the invention of the washing machine improving housewives' live.

New Order came up with the rhythm when they were experimenting with a new Oberheim DMX drum machine they had purchased. In the Guardian newspaper of February 24, 2006, Peter Hook explained: "Bernard [Sumner] and Stephen [Morris] were the instigators. It was their enthusiasm for new technology. The drum pattern was ripped off from a Donna Summer B-side. We'd finished the drum pattern and we were really happy, then Steve accidentally kicked out the drum machine lead so we had to start from scratch and it was never as good. The technology was forever breaking down and the studio was really archaic. Kraftwerk booked it after us because they wanted to emulate 'Blue Monday.' They gave up after four or five days. It was a collection of soundbites - it sort of grew and grew. When we got to the end I went in and jammed the bass; I stole a riff from Ennio Morricone. Bernard went in and jammed the vocals. They're not about Ian Curtis; we wanted it to be vague. I was reading about Fats Domino. He had a song called Blue Monday and it was a Monday and we were all miserable so I thought, 'Oh that's quite apt.'"

Keyboardist Gillian Gilbert told The Guardian in a February 2013 interview how the song was made possible, in part, by er, flatulence. "The synthesizer melody is slightly out of sync with the rhythm," she explained. "This was an accident. It was my job to program the entire song from beginning to end, which had to be done manually, by inputting every note. I had the sequence all written down on loads of A4 paper Sellotaped together the length of the recording studio, like a huge knitting pattern. But I accidentally left a note out, which skewed the melody. We'd bought ourselves an Emulator 1, an early sampler, and used it to add snatches of choir-like voices from Kraftwerk's album Radioactivity, as well as recordings of thunder. Bernard and Stephen had worked out how to use it by spending hours recording farts."

"Blue Monday" is one of the most influential electronica songs. Synthpop was already a major force in British popular music, but this was arguably the first British dance record to cross over to the New York club scene