"How Does It Feel?" - The Making Of 'Blue Monday'

Recorded in 1982, New Order's most celebrated track is still shaping electronic music.

The significance of New Order’s most celebrated track is eclipsed only by the vast number of myths that have sprung up around it. That it is the best-selling 12'' single of all time there can be little doubt - Factory Records shifted 700,000 copies in the UK alone. Most everything else, however, is up for grabs. All that can be said with any certainty is that 'Blue Monday' detonated over the dance scene like an atom bomb, which is only fitting since the song's half-life is on a par with Uranium's.

The song also helped New Order distance themselves from their previous incarnation. As Joy Division, Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Stephen Morris had been part of the most important post-punk band of the late 1970s. In the wake of singer Ian Curtis's suicide, no one would've been surprised had the guitarist, bassist and drummer decided to go their separate ways. Determined not to lose what had been so hard won, the band assumed a new identity - New Order winning out over Barney And The JDs, The Sun Valley Dance Band and The Witchdoctors Of Zimbabwe - and acquired a new member, Stephen's girlfriend and aspiring guitarist and keyboard player Gillian Gilbert.

A well-received first single, 'Ceremony' (featuring lyrics by Curtis), preceded a debut album, 1981's Movement, the production of which the group were never particularly pleased with. When subsequent singles 'Everything’s Gone Green' and 'Temptation' criminally under-performed, the group's future seemed in doubt - or at least, it might have been had their manager Rob Gretton and label boss Tony Wilson not been so hopelessly devoted to the band.

Remarkably, the song that would utterly transform New Order's fortunes had anti-social origins. "I'm not interested in playing out the encore game," Peter Hook explained to Brian Edge in the early 1980s. "We respect our audience too much to have them waiting around for us." Instead of hanging around to farewell their fans, the group hit upon the idea of recording a song that could be played entirely electronically, allowing them to set about the rider before the gig was even over.