i dont like mondays - boomtown rats - acoustic cover

"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.

[edit] History

Geldof wrote the song after reading a telex report at Georgia State University's campus radio station, WRAS, 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."[1] The song was first performed less than a month later at the Fox Theatre, San Diego.[2]

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 so[citation needed] 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 19852001, 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 "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". Dr. House (Hugh Laurie) played the elegant piano introduction to the song for a patient (Dave Matthews), a musical savant with dystonia, who then repeated it perfectly (with House adding the distinctive hand claps between the last two phrases).

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

Category:

Music

Tags:

• dont
• like
• mondays
• boomtown
• rats
• acoustic
• cover

[katerina5k]

Nice version George. I remember buying this album when it first came out...in vinyl!

This song lends itself nicely to being played un-plugged.

Your repertoire/musical tastes are so diverse! Mine too.

[gkartsonakis]

many thanks!!!

[AbovePerfect]

bob dylan influnce? nice;)

[treesapimprov]

This is awesome man!

[19assassin63]

Excellent, can you let me know the chords? Would love to play this.

[xvxacemanxvx]

china man trying to sin gin english?>

[Vandark24]

can you show me the cords by PN?

[rednas91]

Nice!!

[Frank332666]

nice. well done. your voice is amazing

[hugostabiloboss]

Rubbish

[cmp305]

very good. actually i love it. it's the best version i heard here for guitar. great job.