BOULEVARD OF BROKEN DREAMS
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is a song by American punk rock band Green Day, recorded for their seventh studio album American Idiot (2004). “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” remains one of Green Day’s signature songs. The song was ranked number one on Rolling Stone’s Reader’s Choice: Singles of the Decade list in 2009 and number 65 on the 100 Best Songs of the Decade list in the same year. It has sold over 2 million copies in the United States as of 2010. The single peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100, making it Green Day’s most successful song in the United States. The song was the ninth-highest-selling single of the 2000–2009 decade with worldwide sales exceeding 5 million copies. (More from Wikipedia)
The celebration of the 10th anniversary this year of the introduction by Apple Computers of their earthshaking personal device, the iPhone let me know that Steve Jobs referenced Green Day in his original announcement about the iPhone. While demonstrating its features on January 9, 2007, he flashed the album art for American Idiot to the audience and played a brief excerpt from “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”.
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Twenty-three years after the release of the punk-rock concept album Only Lovers Left Alive by past UARB the Wanderers, Green Day released their classic rock-opera album, American Idiot. From Wikipedia: “American Idiot (2004) marked a career comeback for Green Day following a period of decreased success. It charted in 27 countries, peaking at number one in 19, and eventually sold 16 million copies worldwide. The album spawned five successful singles: ‘American Idiot’, ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’, ‘Holiday’, ‘Wake Me Up When September Ends’, and ‘Jesus of Suburbia’.”
The name “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” has a long history in music and elsewhere. According to Wikipedia, there have been six previous uses of the phrase as a song or album name by everyone from David Cassidy to Smokie to Hanoi Rocks, beginning with a 1930’s standard called “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” – in all, there are 14 items listed on the phrase’s “disambiguation” page. Green Day created a combined rock video for “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” and “Holiday”; as mentioned in Wikipedia: “MTV’s Green Day Makes a Video described ‘Holiday’ as a party, and ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ as the subsequent hangover.”
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams” is Green Day’s biggest hit single to date, with 2 million copies sold. Wikipedia notes: “As of 2017, ‘Boulevard of Broken Dreams’ remains the only song in history to win both the Grammy Award for Record of the Year and the MTV Music Video Award for Video of the Year.”
(June 2017)
