Ongoing History Daily: The real woman at the heart of “Mr. Brightside”
“Mr. Brightside” was the very first single by The Killers. It first showed up in the UK on an indie label called Lizard King—and only 500 CD singles were available. Since then, the song has been played almost three billion times on Spotify and hundreds of millions more views on YouTube. It also has been on the British charts for 489 weeks. It’s the song that won’t go away and one that just keeps on giving for The Killers.
The wild thing is that it’s based on a real story.
A quarter-century ago, frontman Brandon Flowers walked into The Crown and Anchor, a bar in his hometown of Las Vegas, only to find his girlfriend cheating on him. Completely heartbroken, he went home and wrote out all the lyrics by hand. Now it’s one of the biggest hits of the century. I wonder what that woman thinks of all this?
