In the 5th edition of 1 Hit WONDERful 

, we highlight βI Donβt Like Mondays β performed by The Boomtown Rats.
It only takes ONE hit to solidify a musical legacy ! On 1 Hit WONDERful
, we highlight songs that were the SOLE hit by a given musician. To be fair, it is possible that the artists appearing on this list earned a minor hit or two, BUT for the most part, itβs that ONE hit that earned them recognition. So, in the 5th edition of 1 Hit WONDERful
, we dive into
βI Donβt Like Mondays β, the one hit wonder by
The Boomtown Rats.
βTell me why / I donβt like Mondays / I wanna shoot the whole day down.β Mondays tend to be an unpopular day, but in the case of
βI Donβt Like Mondaysβ, the hatred is far more pronounced. Irish rock band
The Boomtown Rats wrote and recorded a song that references the Grover Cleveland Elementary School shooting. Infamously, 16-year old Brenda Spencer, who truly didnβt like Mondays, killed two adults and injured eight children with a .22 caliber semiautomatic rifle at the elementary across from her house
. A worldwide hit from their 1979 album,
The Fine Art of Surfacing, the song marks the only charting single by The Boomtown Rats on the Billboard Hot 100. Notably, βI Donβt Like Mondaysβ was a top five hit in many countries, including hitting no. 1 in Ireland, Australia, and the UK. In the United States, it settled for no. 73. Again, this was the collectiveβs sole charting hit, hence, one hit wonder status.
βThe silicon chip inside her head / Gets switched to overload / And nobodyβs gonna go to school today / Sheβs gonna make them stay at home.β Those lyrics, from the first verse of βI Donβt Like Mondaysβ, capture an unhinged person, in this case, a delusional mass murderer. In the first verse, Bob Geldof captures the shock of Brendaβs father, asserting, βAnd daddy doesnβt understand it / He always said she was good as gold.β This sometimes occurs in cases from mass murderers and serial killers where the parents didnβt see any signs, hence why βAnd mother feels so shocked, fatherβs world is rockedβ (verse two). The third verse is incredibly disturbing:
βAnd all the playingβs stopped in the playground now
She wants to play with the toys a while
And schoolβs out early and soon weβll be learning
And the lesson is how to die.β
Morbid, morbid, morbid. Beyond the songwriting,
βI Donβt Like Mondaysβ is incredibly ear catching, thanks to its art pop/New Wave sound. The piano and keyboard work is brilliant by
Johnny Fingers. Furthermore, the backing vocals only accentuate Geldofβs fabulous lead. Also, shout out the marvelous strings/string arrangement. Fun fact:
Tori Amos covered βI Donβt Like Mondaysβ on her 2001 album,
Strange Little Girls. The one is 1 Hit WONDERful
, indeed!
Appears in :
- 12 More Songs About Mass Murderers (Vol. 3) (2018)
- 15 Songs for the Days of the Week (2018)
- 13 Unsettling Songs About Female Murderers (2019)
The Boomtown Rats β’
The Fine Art of Surfacing β’
Mercury β’
β―1979
The Boomtown Rats, I Donβt Like Mondays: 1 Hit WONDERful 

No. 5 (2023) [
: Brent Faulkner / The Musical Hype; Mercury; Julia Larsen, Kurchakto, RDNE Stock project, Victor Terrell from Pexels; Andrew Martin from Pixabay]