I Don't Like Mondays

This week's edition of Retro Friday features the band The Boomtown Rats, and the song "I Don't Like Mondays."

The Boomtown Rats were an Irish punk rock band that had multiple Irish and UK hits between 1977 and 1985. There were six members in the band, led by vocalist Bob Geldof. All six band members were originally from Dún Laoghaire, Ireland. Their original band was named "The Nightlife Thugs," but they renamed themselves the "Boomtown Rats" after a gang that Geldof read about in Woody Guthrie's autobiography, Bound for Glory.

The band moved to London in October of 1976, and became an active part of the punk rock movement. After signing a recording contract with Ensign Records, they released their debut single, "Lookin' After No. 1", in August of 1977. It was the first of nine straight singles to make the Top 40 in the UK Singles Chart. Next they released their debut album, The Boomtown Rats, in September of 1977. It featured another hit single, "Mary of the 4th Form".

Their second album, A Tonic for the Troops, was released in June of 1978 in the UK. It produced three hit singles, "Like Clockwork", "She's So Modern" and "Rat Trap". A Tonic for the Troops was then released in the U.S. in February of 1979.

1979 also saw the release of the hit song "I Don't Like Mondays." This song was written in response to a school shooting in California carried out by Brenda Ann Spencer. The single reached the #1 spot in the UK. It was hit worldwide, with the exception being the United States.

Too many U.S. radio stations refused to play it as a result of their fears of being sued. The unofficial U.S. radio boycott was front page news in Variety Magazine, the only time the Boomtown Rats earned such prominent coverage. "I Don't Like Mondays" was also included in The Fine Art of Surfacing, the band's third album, and subsequently became the band's only U.S. Billboard Hot 100 entry.

This week was such a strange work week. I worked Monday and Tuesday, was off Wednesday for the 4th of July, worked Thursday, and now I'm off Friday. All day on Thursday I kept thinking it was Monday, and let me tell you, it absolutely felt like a Monday, too. So I started singing "I Don't Like Mondays" ... and voila, there is Retro Friday!

I hope you all have had a better week than me. It's been a full moon, ER visit, fainting kind of week. I am SO glad today is Friday!

And here it is for your listening pleasure ... "I Don't Like Mondays."



Cheers!