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Welcome to the Black Parade

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"Welcome to the Black Parade" is the first single and fifth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on September 11, 2006 on iTunes and October 9, 2006 on CD. It is the band's ninth single. The studio version was available on MySpace on September 2, 2006. It became their first UK number one on October 15, 2006 as well as their first US number one when it topped the Modern Rock charts on October 26, 2006 where it stayed for seven weeks.

Track listing

Version one (CD single, 7-inch vinyl #2):

  1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (album version)
  2. "Heaven Help Us"

Version two (7-inch vinyl #1):

  1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (album version)
  2. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (live)

Version three (Australian single):

  1. "Welcome to the Black Parade"
  2. "Heaven Help Us"
  3. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (live)

iTunes version:

  1. "Welcome to the Black Parade" (radio edit)
  2. "My Chemical Romance Welcomes You to the Black Parade" (commentary by the band)

Overview

My Chemical Romance debuted "Welcome to the Black Parade" live at the pre-show of the 2006 MTV Video Music Awards.

The studio version is now available on their MySpace.[1] The track can also be heard at TheBlackParade.com. The music video can be seen at MyChemicalRomance.com. The single was also released on iTunes in its radio edit form (4:37), along with an interview with the band about the upcoming album.

MCR talks about "Welcome to the Black Parade" in the EP track available on iTunes called "My Chemical Romance Welcomes You to the Black Parade". They say it's probably the oldest track on the new album next to "Disenchanted". They say the idea for the song came before their first record came out but it wasn't finished and they forgot about it for a while. They tried to write it again for Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge but they had so many ideas for that album that it got put off. Then, when they started writing for their third album they picked up the song again and started working on it. After the song was recorded the band thought it could be improved before it was finished. The entire process of making "Welcome to the Black Parade" took about 3 years. Gerard Way says the song is a prime example of the risks they took on their third album.[citation needed]

Way says it was the hardest song for the band to create.[citation needed] The song consists of 167 separate tracks mixed together, including marching band drums, multiple snares and a horn section. Way says the song also has a section called the "orphan section," during the bridge when some gang vocals come in. The section was influenced by the vocals from the Broadway musical Little Orphan Annie. The first code name for this song was "The Five Of Us Are Dying".

This song was also used, in an edited form, for a video for Schools for Schools, a program started by Invisible Children Inc. to help rebuild schools in Uganda.[2]

Charts

The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at #71 for the chart week of September 30, 2006, becoming their highest debut for a single. It peaked at #9 on the Hot 100 in its 17th and 18th week on the chart, becoming the band's first top ten Hot 100 hit, and their highest peaking single thus far (their previous highest position on this chart was #33 with "Helena"). In addition it topped Modern Rock Tracks for an impressive seven weeks in a row, and is the band's only #1 on this chart to date. It peaked at #2 on the UK iTunes Music Store's most played songs, and has reached #6 on the US iTunes Store. The single knocked Razorlight's "America" off the number 1 single spot on Sunday, October 15, 2006 in the UK after extensive airplay, becoming the band's first #1 there. It has overall been their most successful single to date, reaching the top 10 of the United World Chart, proving it to be a worldwide hit.

Chart Peak
position
Dave's Show Top 50 1
U.S. Hot 100 9
U.S. Pop 100 8
U.S. Hot Digital Songs 7
Modern Rock Tracks 1
Mainstream Rock Tracks 24
UK Singles Chart 1
Irish Singles Chart 12
Italy Singles Chart 28
Galgalatz Israel Top 20 1
Latvian Airplay Top 14
Australian ARIA Singles Chart 14
Colombian Singles Chart[3] 39
Poland Singles Chart 41
New Zealand Top 40 Singles Chart 1
Piczo Countdown 9
United World Chart 8
MYX Philippines 1
Czech IFPI Chart 6

Music video

File:WelcomeToTheBlackParade.png
The Black Parade as shown in the music video.

The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, known for his work with Nirvana and Green Day.[4] The music video was released on September 26, 2006 in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006 in the U.S. It features a man (played by Lukas Haas) dressed in a hospital gown, "The Patient" that the album is about, dying, and being taken by death in the form of a Black Parade. On the main float stands Gerard, Mikey, Bob, Ray and Frank playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". The costumes worn by the band members of My Chemical Romance in the music video are meant to be the exact opposite of the costumes worn by The Beatles on the cover of their album Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band[citation needed], a main influence for their new album[citation needed]. Gerard has been quoted saying "The uniforms on Sgt. Pepper's couldn't be more colorful, and these couldn't be less colorful."[citation needed] While the band is playing, "The Patient" wanders throughout the parade looking at all the various characters within it. In the end he is given a medal, the medal could be symbolic of death itself or a life completed. After this, the parade leaves and "The Patient" is left alone.

The cover art for the single is a scene from the video, with the man in the bottom center being the Patient. He is flanked by two women named "Fear" and "Regret" in Gerard Way Revenge-era makeup, possibly signifying the band has not left their roots with their transformation. The setting of the music video goes from a hospital to a surreal cityscape, with ash-covered wreckage and destroyed buildings. The video features 4 of the main characters. "The Patient", "Fear", "Regret", and "Mother War". "Fear" and "Regret" are the two women that stand beside "The Patient" on the cover for the single. "Mother War" is the woman in the Victorian-era gown and gas mask. Liza Minnelli plays the character of "Mother War" in the second verse of the song "Mama".

Trivia

  • The imagery of the video seems to be suggestive of James Ensor's 1888 painting[5] "Christ's Entry into Brussels in 1889", albeit minus the Christ figure.
  • In the Surreal Cityscape, pictures of actual ruined buildings were used, most from the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake, one of the most obvious is the original San Francisco City Hall which is seen several times in the background.
  • The lyrics "So paint it black and take it back" are a possible reference to the Rolling Stones song "Paint It, Black".
  • In "The Making Of The Black Parade" booklet that comes with the limited edition boxed set of The Black Parade, it says that the original title of the song is "The Five Of Us Are Dying".

Parody

On the January 6, 2007 episode of MADtv, the song was parodied as "The Black Tirade", centering on Michael Richards's dying career after spouting racial slurs at the Laugh Factory, as well as how Internet video sites like YouTube are becoming more popular than television. Michael McDonald played Michael Richards and the video parody featured African-American people smashing Seinfeld DVDs and the (fake) band members of My Chemical Romance looking at the infamous picture of Britney Spears exiting a limo sans underwear on a laptop computer.

References

  1. ^ http://www.myspace.com/mychemicalromance
  2. ^ http://s4s.invisiblechildren.com/
  3. ^ http://www.americatop100.com/english/colombia/index.htm
  4. ^ http://www.somorescene.com/2006/07/29/what-is-the-nigger-parade/
  5. ^ http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=932
Preceded by UK Singles Chart number one single
October 16, 2006 - October 29, 2006 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single
October 29, 2006 - December 16, 2006 		Succeeded by
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