The Battle for Christmas Number One in 2003 was an epic for the ages, and one of the closest ever fought. And God was I annoyed about the way it went at the time…
Mad World, by Michael Andrews ft. Gary Jules (their 1st and only #1)
3 weeks, 21st December 2003 – 11th January 2004
The Darkness, the year’s cock-rocking breakthrough band (another example of how 2003 was a deeply strange musical year…) had already had several Top 10 hits and a huge-selling album, and looked primed to take the festive top-spot, with a throwback to the classic glam hits of seventies. ‘Christmas Time (Don’t Let the Bells End)’ sounded like Slade crossed with Queen crossed with Sparks. It was great, it was bookies’ favourite, and it was bought by me…
Then along came this two-year-old cover of Tears for Fears’ breakthrough hit, the musical opposite of the Darkness, understated, minimalist… dull… and outsold them by just five thousand copies. I thought it was a travesty!
But, now I’ve had time to calm down, twenty-three (!) years later, I can admit that this is an intriguing number one. It is miserable; but it is also starkly haunting. Lines like Dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had… and Children waiting for the day they feel good, Happy birthday, Happy birthday… do not your typical festive hit make. But it spoke to people (and if folks in 2003 think they are living in a mad world, then boy do I have news for them…) Plus, the muffled piano line makes me think of snow softly falling, so it is somewhat Christmassy, at a stretch.
I do wish they hadn’t used the echoey vocal effects, and had kept it even more spartan. It’s like they were worried that people might find it too boring, and so dressed it up unnecessarily. There is a tradition of minimalist festive hits – think the Housemartins, or the Flying Pickets – and this can just about sit alongside them. I do prefer the perkier original, with its natty synth riffs, and I do still wish the Darkness had made #1. This record would presumably have climbed to number one after Christmas, so both records could have had their moments on top.
Michael Andrews was a producer and writer of film scores, and Gary Jules (whose voice sounds to me remarkably like Michael Stipe) a singer-songwriter. Both had worked together previously and collaborated on this cover for the soundtrack to ‘Donnie Darko’, an indie movie released in 2001 and which, over two years later, had built up quite a cult following.
This leads to probably the real reason why I didn’t like ‘Mad World’ at the time. I was seventeen, had just finished my first semester at university, and this song, along with ‘Donnie Darko’, represented the cool kids. The edgelords. The Oh my God you haven’t seen ‘Fargo’…? crowd. I was not a cool kid, but deep down I did want to be. I just never seemed to like the things that the cool kids liked. I couldn’t help be drawn to the brash mainstream-ness of the Darkness.
Ironically, the minute this became a number one single, the cool kids would have had to ditch it for something much less well-known. But it had its moment, and was quite the story at the time. Neither Andrews nor Jules has appeared on the charts at any other time, and both remain gold-star one-hit wonders.
Apologies for the poor quality video…
The UK Number Ones Blog 
It’s a very good cover version, but The Darkness should have won.
Hear hear!
I’m glad somebody feels the same as I do. I loved that Darkness record and was really hoping it would clinch the Christmas No 1. ‘Mad World’ is utterly boring. I never liked the original either, and 40-plus years later I still don’t. Tears For Fears were for me one of those bland lifeless earnest synth-pop acts that summed up the whole greyness of so much of what was in the charts in the early 80s. Japan, Lotus Eaters, Visage, Depeche Mode et al – no thanks. It’s one of those songs I’m not in a hurry to hear again. (Pause for grumpy old man to dig out a CD or playlist of early 70s glam rock favourites…)
And now one for the other team view (not a cool kid either!) 🙂 I love Tears For Fears, still fabulous and the original is a classic. I liked The Darkness, they brought a bit of 70’s Glam fun back to rock, in a Queen sort of vibe, and I liked the Christmas song, though I wouldnt rate it quite in the same league as those annual chart invaders. I hadn’t seen Donnie Darko at this time, so for me it was just a dark, interesting, understated re-imagining of a great song that was strong enough to take a very different treatment and come out smelling of roses. I thought it was excellent. And then I saw Donnie Darko. Woah! Massively powerful film with an 80’s spine-tingling soundtrack. And Mad World works so well in the context of the film so I can see why it became a belated hit, in the same sort of way streaming sensations like Stranger Things do the same now. A shame for The Darkness falling short of the top spot, but never mind number 2 was good enough for Queen, Slade and Sparks too – see Killer Queen, Somebody To Love, We Are The Champions, Radio Gaga, This Town Ain’t Big Enough, Gudbye T’Jane, Far Far Away, My Oh My (Slade’s Christmas moment that fell short) – and Justin Hawkins is podcasting on music these days, so he seems to be doing OK. 🙂
I need to watch Donnie Darko. It’s silly to have been put off a film by the people who liked it… Another from the time that I’ve still never seen is ‘Napoleon Dynamite’. I instantly liked anyone I met who was wearing that Vote for Pedro t-shirt. I really should be less judgemental!
Add Sweet to the list above – only one No 1, but five wonderful No 2’s.
The Darkness should’ve gotten to No. 1, but I like this cover well enough. It’s a very good cover actually. I actually dunno which I prefer, the original or this. It pretty much set the template and foreshadows for the sadder more downbeat and moody indie pop covers of danceable and upbeat songs that would be all the rage in the 2010s (Callum Scott must have been a huge fan of this).
Also, I don’t think the cool kids are the hipster contrarian kids who dislike something that is popular and will discard and dismiss something once it obtains a small semblance of popularity. The jocky/cool kids are the ones who like the stuff that is popular and mainstream.
OMG so you think this is to blame for all the lo-fi, ‘cursive’ singing nowadays? I dislike it all over again.
You’re describing (20 years ago) high school ‘cool’ kids… to me anyway. When it came to uni it was cool to outdo one another with how obscure the bands/movies/books you liked were. That was largely pre-internet/social media. After that the hipster came along, and it became uncool to be contrarian. And now the cool kids all look the same, and probably all listen to Imagine Dragons. But now I’m old and don’t care. Sigh.