Three songs for Monday: Boomtown Rats, Duran Duran, and New Order

It's Monday! Yay! Am I right? Well, maybe not, but there is always great music to listen to no matter the day of the week or hour of the day.

For your Monday, let's bring back some oldies but goodies. The songs that follow might have some happy sounds, though the inspirations for the tunes might not be so happy.

So while you are working away, or heading to school, or just sitting around the house looking for something to listen to, let me offer the three songs below. I promise you'll be happy by the end. Oh, and no. I don't have any tunes here by the Happy Mondays.

Three songs to start your Monday, including a Duran Duran classic

Duran Duran - "New Moon on Monday"

When this song was released in January of 1984, it was already Duran Duran's tenth single. That seems a bit insane as the album from which it came, Seven and the Ragged Tiger, was just the third album from the band and the debut album originally did not have much attention. But "New Moon on Monday" was another top ten hit in both the UK and the United States for the band.

The music is just so happy sounding that it's a good way to start your Monday. The words, like most of Simon Le Bon's lyrics, are a bit nonsensical but that was also what separated Duran Duran from many other groups of the early 1980s. While the words made little sense, they still had some sort of charm, and always meshed perfectly with the music.

New Order - "Blue Monday"

New Order, of course, are the members of the band Joy Division that reformed after the death of singer Ian Curtis. The group had always said that if a member were to leave, one way or another, they would not longer use the name Joy Division. So the name New Order makes sense.

This song doesn't sound a Joy Division tune either. This was a clear intent to make music that was far more danceable while also using synthesizers and electronic drum beats, something Joy Division wouldn't have done. This song is actually the best selling 12-inch single ever and has sold more than a million copies in the UK alone.

Boomtown Rats - "I Don't Like Mondays"

This somewhat jaunty song is like a mixture of a thunderstorm in the middle of a sunny day. It's definitely about not liking Mondays, but the original inspiration for the song is quite tragic. Singer Bob Geldof was doing an interview at an Atlanta radio station when a news report about a school shooting in San Diego came over the telex. The 16-year-old shooter had no other reason for the shooting other than she didn't like Mondays.

But the track also had a different origin for its opening line, "The silicon chip inside her head/Gets switched to overload." This was inspired by Apple founder Steve Jobs asking the Boomtown Rats to play a small show at the company. Strange what some songs stem from.

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