I Don't Like Mondays

Infobox Single
Name = I Don't Like Mondays


Caption =
Artist = The Boomtown Rats
from Album = The Fine Art of Surfacing
A-side =
B-side = "It's All the Rage"
Released = July 21 1979 (UK)
Format = 7" vinyl
Recorded =
Genre = Pop
Length = 4:19
Label = Ensign Records (UK)
Columbia Records (USA)
Writer = Bob Geldof
Producer = Phil Wainman
Certification =
Chart position =
* #1 (UK Singles Chart)
* #73 (Billboard Hot 100)
Last single = "Rat Trap"
(1978)
This single = "I Don't Like Mondays"
(1979)
Next single = "Diamond Smiles"
(1979)
Misc =

"I Don't Like Mondays" was a UK number one single for four weeks in July 1979. Written by Bob Geldof and performed by The Boomtown Rats, it was the band's second number one single.

History

Geldof wrote the song after reading a telex report on the shooting spree of 16-year-old Brenda Ann Spencer, who fired at children playing in a school playground across the street from her home in San Diego, California. She killed two adults and injured eight children and one police officer. Spencer showed no remorse for her crime, and her full explanation for her actions was "I don't like Mondays, this livens up the day." [cite web | url=http://www.snopes.com/music/songs/mondays.asp | title=Urban Legends Reference Pages: Music (I Don't Like Mondays) | author=Barbara Mikkelson | date=29 September 2005 | work=snopes.com | accessdate=2007-04-17] The song was first performed less than a month later at the Fox Theatre, San Diego. [cite web | url=http://concerts.wolfgangsvault.com/Concerts.aspx?stype=artist&id=896 | title=Concerts for Boomtown Rats | work=Concert Vault | accessdate=2007-04-17]

Despite being a major hit in the United Kingdom, it only reached #73 on the Billboard Hot 100, partly due to Geldof's antagonistic attitude towards U.S. radio stations. Dovid Biren, Geldof's best friend, asked Geldof to drop these views and soFact|date=January 2008 the song was played regularly on Monday mornings by album-oriented rock format radio stations in the United States throughout the 1980s, although radio stations in San Diego continued not to play the track for some years in respect to the local sensitivity surrounding the events on which it was based. The song became Number One in the UK single charts in July 1979. It was subsequently covered by Tori Amos on her 2001 album "Strange Little Girls" and later by G4 on their 2006 album "Act Three".

At a concert in London in 1995, just before the tenth anniversary of Live Aid (during which Geldof himself performed the song in the Boomtown Rats' final major appearance), 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". Geldof himself performed an impromptu version of the song while hosting the Live 8 concert in London, on July 2 2005 in music.

In "20 Hours in America, Part II", the second episode of season 4 of "The West Wing", the song (covered by Tori Amos) was featured during the aftermath of a fictional bombing at a university, the story behind the song having been told in the previous episode: "20 Hours in America, Part I".

The song appeared in the television series "House" in the episode "Half-Wit". Hugh Laurie played the introduction to the song on the piano and Dave Matthews, playing a musical savant with dystonia joined him.

The melody of the song also serves as the basis for the F. C. Copenhagen football team' song.

In the movie Home Room (a movie about a high school shooting), the song is playing when one of the main characters is flipping through radio channels.

Online fashion boutique www.idontlikemondays.us was named by founder and international high-fashion model Rila Fukushima because the song was a favourite of hers as a child.

References

Succession
preceded = "Are 'Friends' Electric?" by Tubeway Army
office = UK number one single
years = July 28 1979
succeeded = "We Don't Talk Anymore" by Cliff Richard