#songmeaning #thekillers #mrbrightside
"Mr. Brightside" is the debut single of American rock band the Killers.
It is taken from their debut studio album, Hot Fuss released in 2004.
The song was written by band members Brandon Flowers and Dave Keuning, it was one of the first songs the Killers ever wrote.
Lyrically, "Mr. Brightside" depicts a true story of Flowers' jealousy and paranoia when he walked into a bar in Las Vegas and found his girlfriend cheating on him.
"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."
Guitarist Dave 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”.
The "calling a cab" section of the song has both a musical and textual similarity to the middle section of the song "Queen Bitch" by David Bowie.
As 2021, "Mr. Brightside" has spent 260 non-consecutive weeks, or five years, on the UK Singles Chart, the most out of any song.