Using equipment that was groundbreaking at the time, they built the track around:
: A cold, sequencer-driven melody that defined the transition from post-punk to alternative dance. Blue Monday (2011 Total Version) MP3
The story of "Blue Monday" began in as a technical experiment. The band—Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook, Stephen Morris, and Gillian Gilbert—wanted to create an encore song they could program to play automatically, allowing them to leave the stage while the music continued. Using equipment that was groundbreaking at the time,
: Designer Peter Saville created a die-cut sleeve that looked like a 5.25-inch computer disk. A Financial "Failure" Turned Masterpiece : Designer Peter Saville created a die-cut sleeve
Despite becoming the , the song was famously a money-loser for Factory Records. The sleeve design was so expensive to produce that the label reportedly lost between 2p and £1 on every copy sold. The band didn't realize it was a hit until they saw the massive sales figures, which ironically put the label in further debt.
The is the original 7-minute and 29-second version of New Order’s legendary 1983 hit, remastered for the 2011 compilation album Total: From Joy Division to New Order . The Origins of a Revolution
: Responsible for the iconic "stuttering" kick drum intro.