"Mr. Brightside" is the debut single of Americanrock bandthe Killers.[11] It appears on their debut studio album,Hot Fuss (2004). Written by band membersBrandon Flowers andDave Keuning, it was one of the first songs the Killers ever wrote.[12] Two music videos were made for the song: the first one was shot in black and white and features the band performing in an empty room and the second one was based on the 2001 filmMoulin Rouge!.
Apastiche of theBritpop genre, the song was first released on September 29, 2003 but became more popular when re-released in 2004, peaking at number 10 in both the United States and the United Kingdom. It is the Killers' best-selling song in the US, where it has sold over 3.5 million copies.[13] In the United Kingdom, it is the third biggest selling/streaming song of all time and is the longest-charting single on the UK Official Singles Chart Top 100, having spent over 408 weeks (nearly eight years) on the chart as of 2024[update], and is the most streamed track released prior to 2010.[14][15] It is also one of the top fifteen most downloaded rock tracks ever in the United Kingdom[16] and is the most successful single to never top the British charts.[17] It is one of only two songs (the other beingEd Sheeran's "Shape of You") to have been certified 10× Platinum by theBritish Phonographic Industry for 6 million units.
"Mr. Brightside" was named "Song of the Decade" by UK radio stationsAbsolute Radio andXFM, and in April 2010Last.fm revealed that it was the most-listened-to track since the launch of the online music service, with the track being played over 7.66 million times.[18] It is the most streamed song onSpotify from the 2000s.[19] In October 2010, it was voted ninth in the Greatest Guitar Riffs of the 21st Century so far byTotal Guitar magazine.[20] Additionally, in 2010Rolling Stone listed "Mr. Brightside" as the 48th-best song of the 21st century,[21] and in 2021, it was ranked number 378 in the same magazine's "500 Greatest Songs of All Time" list.[22]
Lyrically, "Mr. Brightside" depicts a true story ofBrandon Flowers' jealousy and paranoia when he walked into a bar inLas Vegas and found his girlfriend cheating on him.[23] "I was asleep and I knew something was wrong," he said. "I have these instincts. I went to the Crown and Anchor, a bar in Vegas, and my girlfriend was there with another guy."[23]
GuitaristDave Keuning composed the music before meeting Flowers. Flowers then wrote lyrics and composed the chorus after hearing Keuning's ideas. Flowers credits the speed of the song's creation to its having only one verse. He says, "We went in and made demos pretty quickly after that, and it took a ton of time. That's also why there's not a second verse... I just didn't have any other lines, and it ended up sticking."[24] DrummerRonnie Vannucci Jr. is credited with creating the fast-paced drum beat in the first twenty-two seconds.[25] The "calling a cab" section of the song has both a musical and textual similarity to the middle section of the song "Queen Bitch" fromDavid Bowie's albumHunky Dory (1971).[26][27]
The song was mixed for its inclusion onHot Fuss byMark Needham, along with business partners Braden Merrick and Jeff Saltzman. The song was first created as a reference mix in just over half an hour "on an 8-input console, with no automation" according to Needham. Despite several subsequent remixes, the members of the Killers preferred the original one, which then made it onto the record. In recording the vocal effects, Saltzman used Echo Farm, sticking with the default vocal effects setting. Needham says it "overdrives the vocal a bit and sets an 84 ms delay."[28]
"Mr. Brightside" is written in thekey ofD♭ major[29] with a moderately fasttempo of around 148 BPM.
An early demo of the song featured Dave Keuning on bass and Matt Norcross on drums, beforeMark Stoermer and Ronnie Vannucci were members of the band. The original demo was officially released on the 2013 compilation albumDirect Hits. On the Killers' 2012 albumBattle Born, they released "Miss Atomic Bomb", which is considered[by whom?] a companion song to "Mr. Brightside" lyrically.
In their first performance together as the Killers, Flowers and Keuning played "Mr. Brightside" as part of a two-song open-mic night set at Las Vegas' Cafe Roma. Of the performance, Flowers says "It was terrible, awful."[30] In November 2001, the group had recorded "Mr. Brightside" along with three other demos including "Desperate", "Replaceable", and "Under the Gun" at Mike Sak's Kill the Messenger Studio inHenderson, Nevada. They handed out a demo of the song for free during their shows in 2002. After signing with UKindie labelLizard King Records, the track was sent to radio as a buzz single[clarification needed] and it was frequently played byBBC Radio 1 DJ'sZane Lowe andSteve Lamacq as well as being play-listed byXFM. Just one week after its April release,MTV2 secured a deal to air the song for a week.[31]
In one of the song's first reviews,The Washington Post stated, "dashing through the tune as if it were a power ballad on speed, Flowers and company had the capacity crowd pulsing along with glee."[34] "Mr. Brightside" became a popular song within the Las Vegas music scene with one reviewer calling it a "feel-good anthem that ranks as one of the best local tracks in a long time".[35] In positive reviews,NME said the song was filled with "ambition, sex, and noise"[36] whileRolling Stone described the song as having "swelled with anthemic majesty".[37]The Guardian considered "Mr. Brightside" to be the most overplayed song, and noted that it has been played "on the radio. In the supermarket. In the pub. The office. In a cab. Thrumming through your neighbours' wall. [...] Blasted out at every party or wedding you'll attend for the rest of your life."[38] In 2020,Paste ranked the song number 3 on their list of the 20 greatest Killers songs,[39] and in 2021,American Songwriter ranked the song number 1 on their list of the 10 greatest Killers songs.[40]
"Mr. Brightside" entered theBillboard Hot 100 at No. 40 on February 12, 2005,[41] and peaked at No. 10 on June 11,[42] thus making it asleeper hit. The song reached 3.5 million in sales in 2016.[43]
In 2005, "Mr. Brightside" was the sixth most downloaded song oniTunes.[44] To this day "Mr. Brightside" still has the highest popularity rating that iTunes offers, even after being available for purchase for nearly 20 years.[citation needed] Additionally, sales ofHot Fuss album reached over 5 million sales by 2006.[45] The online music streaming serviceLast.fm reported in 2010 that "Mr. Brightside" was the most downloaded song on the website.[46] By July 2014, the song sold more than 820,000 copies in the United Kingdom,[47] making it the UK's No. 12 most downloadedrock track of all time.[16]
In April 2021, the song became the first to spend 260 weeks, or five years, on theUK Singles Chart.[48][49] As of 2017[update], it had charted on the UK Singles Chart in 11 of the last 13 years,[50] including a 35-week run peaking at number 49 between July 2016 and March 2017.[51] By 2025, the song's total number of weeks on the chart had surpassed 480.[52]
The song was the UK's most streamed pre-2010 song, until it was surpassed byOasis' "Wonderwall" in late 2018,[53][failed verification] and continued to be purchased for download hundreds of times a week by 2017.[54] In March 2018, the song reached the milestone of staying in the Top 100 of the UK Singles Chart for 200 weeks.[54] Explanations have included the song's popularity at parties, its popularity on streaming services, and the continued presence of the Killers as a popular live band in the UK.[51][54] According to the Official Charts Company, the song has been streamed 281 million times in the UK and has sold 3,520,000 copies there as of April 2021.[48]
In August 2025 "Mr. Brightside" reached 375 weeks in total on Ireland's singles charts, despite never having been in the Irish top forty.[55]
In May 2024, "Mr. Brightside" overtook Oasis' "Wonderwall" to become the UK's most successful song of all time that had not reached number 1.[56]
There are two videos for Mr. Brightside: the first version (also known as the UK version) was filmed inStaten Island, New York, and was directed by Brad and Brian Palmer under their studio Surround. Later on in the year and following the success of single "Somebody Told Me", their labelIsland Records decided to create a higher budget video for the US market: the second video (also known as the US version) was filmed inLos Angeles, California. Directed bySophie Muller, the video stars Flowers,Izabella Miko, andEric Roberts in alove triangle, occurring within the context of aburlesque show.
In 2005,Stuart Price released a remix of the song under his pseudonym Jacques Lu Cont. Reviewers were generally negative: for example, Michael Paoletta said this version "depletes the song of its energy and intensity". That same year, this song as well as two others by the Killers ("Smile Like You Mean It" and "Somebody Told Me") reached theBillboard Top 20 single chart.[58][59] An extended version of the Stuart Price remix of the song was featured on the Killers' 2007 B-side and rarities compilation,Sawdust.[60][61] During theFlamingo Road Tour for Brandon Flowers' solo recordFlamingo in 2010, he performed the remix version with Stuart Price during his show atBrixton Academy and has since performed it on his tour as the show closer, again in the remix form.
In theseason 2 episode "The New Era" of the teen drama seriesThe O.C., which aired on December 2, 2004, the Killers play various songs fromHot Fuss, including "Mr. Brightside", "Everything Will Be Alright", and "Smile Like You Mean It" during a scene involving a double-date in the Bait Shop.[64][65][66]
In the 2006 romantic comedyThe Holiday, Amanda Woods (portrayed byCameron Diaz) sets the CD player to play the song, then ironically dances to it and shout-screams the chorus while drunk and holding a glass of red wine, to avoid remembering the infidelity of her boyfriend Ethan (Edward Burns).[67][68][69][70][71]
In the 2013 romantic comedyAbout Time, the song's chorus is briefly played at a New Year's party attended by Tim Lake (Domhnall Gleeson)
In the British TV sitcomBloods, the lead characters sing along to "Mr. Brightside" in the car in the opening episode of series 2.[72]
In the 2023 filmSaltburn, the song is briefly featured in a scene where Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi) and Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) are driving.[73]
The song has become a tradition amongMichigan Wolverines football fans atMichigan Stadium, where fans in excess of 110,000 sing along to the tune when it is played in the fourth quarter.[74][75] While the track was first played in an October 2016 game against Wisconsin,[76] the tradition rose to prominence in 2017 when the crowd sang the second half of the chorus a cappella during a rain-soakedMichigan State game.[75] It rose to further prominence during the resurgence in fortunes of the program in the early 2020s, including during the team's run to winning the2023 national championship, their first since 1997. The ritual has inspired "Mr. Brightside" Michigan-themed merchandise.[77] In the original release ofEA Sports College Football 26, the video game honors this tradition between the third and fourth quarters of games at Michigan Stadium.[78]
English darts playerNathan Aspinall uses the song as his walk-on music, often resulting in raucous sing-a-longs with the usually energetic audiences.[80]
TheBuffalo Bills play the song in the fourth quarter of home games accompanied by a lyric video, leading an energizing sing-along as players jam out on the field and sidelines, riling up the legendaryBills Mafia. The Bills started playing the song in the 2024 playoffs. It continued the following season and grew to prominence during a blowout win against the Jaguars where videos of the team rocking out went viral. The song also became further connected in the summer of 2024 when videos were posted of the song and the team's reaction at Bills tight endDawson Knox's wedding to Alex Seefeldt.[81]
In July 2024, The Killers paused a concert during theRebel Diamonds Tour in London to allow the fans to watch the end of theUEFA Euro 2024 semi-final match between England and the Netherlands, which England won 2–1 and advanced to the final. As the match ended, a series of red and white streamers were fired from cannons, with the band immediately launching into a rendition of Mr. Brightside.[82] The band later posted on theirTwitter account that they "played for England".[83]
^Billboard Staff (October 19, 2023)."The 500 Best Pop Songs: Staff List".Billboard.Archived from the original on December 3, 2024. RetrievedFebruary 24, 2024.Not many pop-rock songs have the instantaneous ability to bring strangers together quite like "Mr. Brightside" can.
^Rolling Stone Staff (June 28, 2018)."The 100 Greatest Songs of the Century – So Far".Rolling Stone.Archived from the original on September 24, 2025. RetrievedMay 31, 2023.Except "Mr. Brightside," a frenzied mash of jealousy and paranoia, New Wave and post-punk that achieved chart success the Strokes could only dream of.
^Graff, Gary. "Retro Rockets The Killers' Rock Act Takes off despite Labeling as 1980s Band: [Final Edition]." Proquest. N.p., May 27, 2005. Web. September 27, 2016.
^Hermes, Will, Christian Hoard, Jody Rosen, and Rob Scheffield. "50 Best Songs of the 21st Century." Proquest. N.p., January 7, 2010. Web. September 26, 2016.
^Dave, Keuning; Brandon, Flowers; Ronnie, Vannucci; Mark, Stoermer; Killers, The (May 1, 2009)."Mr. Brightside".Musicnotes.com.Archived from the original on April 21, 2021. RetrievedApril 21, 2021.
^Bernard, Audrey. "Invigorating Diddy Hosts Amazing 2005 MTV Video Music Awards." Proquest. N.p., September 2005. Web. September 27, 2016.
^Sculley, Alan. "Killers on a Rampage ** Frontman Brandon Flowers Makes a Fuss over the Band's Debut Album: [MERGE Edition]." Proquest. N.p., June 8, 2005. Web. September 27, 2016.
^Paoella, Michael. "Music: "Billboard" Picks – Singles: Dance – The Killers." Billboard – International Newsweekly of Music, Video and Home Entertainment March 5, 2005: n. pag. Print.
^Mr Brightside (UK limited CD single liner notes). The Killers. Lizard King Records. 2003. LIZARD007.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (UK limited 7-inch single sleeve). The Killers. Lizard King Records. 2004. LIZARD010X.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (UK CD1 liner notes). The Killers. Lizard King Records. 2004. LIZARD010CD1.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (UK CD2 liner notes). The Killers. Lizard King Records. 2004. LIZARD010CD2.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (Australian limited CD single liner notes). The Killers.Island Records. 2004. 2103362.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (European CD single liner notes). The Killers. Island Records. 2004. 0602498804193.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr Brightside (European maxi-CD single liner notes). The Killers. Island Records. 2004. 0602498804186.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^Mr. Brightside (US 2×12-inch single vinyl discs). The Killers. Island Records. 2005. B0004170-11.{{cite AV media notes}}: CS1 maint: others in cite AV media (notes) (link)
^"R&R Canada Rock Top 30"(PDF).Radio & Records. No. 1599. March 25, 2005. p. 62.Archived(PDF) from the original on October 17, 2020. RetrievedOctober 8, 2019.
