Misery Business

"Misery Business"
Single by Paramore
from the album Riot!
B-side	"Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)" "My Hero" "Sunday Bloody Sunday"
Released	July 15, 2007
Format	CD, 2x 7" vinyl (UK only), VinylDisc, and Promo CD
Recorded	January 2007
Genre	Pop punk, emo
Length	3:32 (album version/main version)[1] 3:18 (radio edit)
Label	Fueled by Ramen
Writer(s)	Hayley Williams and Josh Farro
Producer(s)	David Bendeth
Certification	Platinum (RIAA)[2]
Paramore singles chronology
"All We Know" (2007) "Misery Business" (2007) "Hallelujah" (2007)
Alternative cover iTunes download cover

"Misery Business" is a song by American rock band Paramore, the lead single from their second studio album, Riot!. It peaked on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 26. It also peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. It is the band's highest-charting airplay single to date, and the group's first charting single in the UK. It was a success in many countries including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. The song is also featured in the video games Saints Row 2, NHL 08, Guitar Hero World Tour, Lips, and Rock Band 3.

The video for "Misery Business" was the third to be directed by Shane Drake for the band, and Alternative Press named "Misery Business" Video of the Year in 2007.

Chart performance

"Misery Business" is the third charting single for the group in the US. During the week of June 25, 2007, it debuted at #99 on the Billboard Hot 100. The following week, the song reached #86. Due to increased digital downloads during the month of August 2007, it re-entered the Billboard Hot 100 during the chart week of September 6, 2007 at #34. This was the peak of "Misery Business" until the chart week of January 5, 2008, when the song reached #31. Its current peak on the Billboard Hot 100 is #26, making it the band's highest-charting airplay single to date. It also peaked at #3 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. The song was certified Platinum in the U.S on September 17, 2008, with over 1,000,000 digital downloads. In December 2010 the song topped the two million mark in paid downloads.^[3][4] It has sold 2,405,000 copies in the US as of December 2013.^[5]

The single was re-released in the UK Accorto Record Store on February 11, 2008 and included three vinyl records. To date, it has peaked at #17 on the UK Singles Chart. It is also the group's first charting single in the UK. It was a success in many countries including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, Brazil and others. It debuted on the Dutch Top 40 peaking at #28 and in Finland at #23.

In 2009, the song was certified Platinum in Australia. Selling over 15,000 copies in New Zealand, the song was certified Gold on February 1, 2008, with the shipment of over 7,500 copies.

Concept

The phrase, Misery Business, was first heard on a Stephen King adaptation psycho-thriller film, Misery (1990).

The origin of the song is ambiguous with Williams giving conflicting explanations. The Fueled by Ramen website reports that Williams wrote the song based on feedback the band received after a question she posted on the band's LiveJournal asking what people were ashamed of.^[6] However, on the band's blog, Williams claims the song was written about a past experience involving a male friend whom she felt was being manipulated by a girl, and later on when Williams and her friend began to date, she penned the lyrics to "finally explain my side of the story and feel freed of it all".^[7] Later, Williams addressed the lyrics in the chorus:

Williams joked on Twitter on May 27, 2013, that it was about London's Heathrow Airport.^[8]

Music video

The music video was filmed at Reseda High School in Reseda, California. Directed by Shane Drake, whom also directed Paramore's videos for "Pressure" and "Emergency", it features a band performance at a school.

The video starts out with the band playing the song with an assortment of "RIOT!"s (a reference to the album's name) in the background. It switches to the band playing at a high school, where a girl in a blue dress and heavy makeup walks in. She pushes the school cheerleaders aside as she walks into the hallway and cuts off another girl's braid with scissors, showing it to her. Later, as she is walking down the hall, a boy comes out of the nurse's office, his arm in a sling. She proceeds to push him into the wall, further injuring him. The band continues to play, and the girl walks up on a girl and a boy together who are obviously in love. She pushes the girl's face out of the way and passionately kisses the boy. She then leaves, grinning smugly. It switches, again, to the band playing, then the band comes out of a classroom together. Hayley Williams and the girl confront each other in the hall. Williams reaches into the girl's bra and pulls out false pads, then uses a towel to wipe the girl's makeup off, exposing her for what she is. The video ends as the band finishes the song; and they walk away as bassist Jeremy Davis taunts her as the girl breaks down, humiliated.

The video was nominated for the "Best Video" award at the Kerrang! Awards 2007 but lost to Fall Out Boy's "This Ain't a Scene, It's an Arms Race."^[9]

Fueled By Ramen (FBR+) also released an alternate cut of the video that removes the high school clips and features only performance segments.^[6]

Track listings

A CD and two 7" singles were released in the UK on June 18, 2008. The CD single features a new song, "Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)", and the two vinyls feature two covers: an electronic remix of "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters, and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" by U2.

Release history

Charts

Certification

In popular culture

In various media

• The song was used in professional StarCraft's Shinhan Bank Pro League.
• It was featured in an episode of the British television soap opera Hollyoaks in March 2008 ("Born for This" was also used in another episode in September 2008, and then later "Hallelujah" in October 2008).^{[citation needed]}
• It was in a season 7 episode of Degrassi: The Next Generation, and is included in the Music from Degrassi: The Next Generation soundtrack.
• It is a playable track in the games Guitar Hero World Tour, in which Hayley Williams is also a playable character, as well as Rock Band 3.
• It is featured in the 2008 video game Saints Row 2.^[14]
• It is featured on the soundtrack of the video game NHL 08.

Covers

• The Voice's contestant Charlotte Sometimes covered the song during the first live round in the second season.
• Metalcore band, Sea of Treachery, has covered "Misery Business". Williams has praising their cover.^[15]
• Aaron Marsh of Copeland did a live cover, which Williams praised on Twitter.

Other references

• The Professional Bull Riders tour features a bull named Misery Business.^[16]

References

External links

• Official Paramore LiveJournal
• Full lyrics of this song at MetroLyrics