| "A Dustland Fairytale" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by The Killers | ||||
| from the album Day & Age | ||||
| B-side | Forget About What I Said | |||
| Released | US May 9, 2009 UK July 10, 2009 |
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| Format | Download | |||
| Recorded | 2008 | |||
| Genre | Heartland rock | |||
| Length | 3:46 | |||
| Label | Island | |||
| Writer(s) | The Killers | |||
| Producer | Stuart Price, The Killers | |||
| The Killers singles chronology | ||||
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"A Dustland Fairytale" is a song by American rock band The Killers. The song is about frontman Brandon Flowers' parents.[1]
Contents |
The cover art for the single is a portrait of the band's bassist Mark Stoermer, and is one of the four portraits drawn by Paul Normansell for the album.
The song was released as the third single from the band's third studio album Day & Age in North America. In the UK, Europe and Australia, the third single released was "The World We Live In".[2]
It was the fourth single from Day & Age in the UK and was released on August 10, 2009.[3]
It was released as a digital download and as a limited edition 7" vinyl.
UK 7" Picture Disc
UK Digital EP[5]
In December 2008, "A Dustland Fairytale" charted in the UK Top 200 on Album Track Downloads alone, at number 158, in the week of its official release it re-entered at 137.
| Chart (2009) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| UK Singles Chart[6] | 137 |
| US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks[7] | 36 |
The video was directed by Anthony Mandler who also directed Killers videos for "Tranquilize" and "When You Were Young".[8] It was released on US iTunes on June 8, 2009.
The video premiered in the UK on June 16 on Channel 4 and 4 Music.
The video shows an old man named Joe White, smoking with a tattoo of the number 7 on one of his fingers. It then reflects on a younger man, "Joey", showing the same 7 on the finger, dressed in a leather jacket, white shirt and leather pants and about to fight a member of another gang, "Billy", for his own gang, the "Sevens". Throughout the video, it shows the boy, Joey, dating a brunette girl, then there is a flashback of Joey looking at the brunette girl through her window, as she turns around and kisses Billy, while it shows the older man going to all the locations shown, reflecting on the memories of his youth. Interspersed with this is a letter that the man has, showing that he has just been released from prison, which gives a clue to the result of the initial fight - he kills Billy. The final shot is of an older Joe visiting a house, ringing the doorbell to find an older brunette woman answer the door, and they embrace.
| Region | Date | Format | Label |
|---|---|---|---|
| Worldwide | November 23, 2008 | Digital download | Island Records |
| North America | June 9, 2009 | Video download | Island Def Jam |
| United Kingdom | August 9, 2009 | Digital EP | Mercury Records |
| United Kingdom | August 10, 2009 | 7 inch vinyl | Mercury Records |
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