Welcome to the Black Parade
Encyclopedia
"Welcome to the Black Parade" (also going by the shortened title The Black Parade and originally titled "The Five of Us are Dying") 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 eighth single. The studio version was available on MySpace
on September 2, 2006.
The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer
, known for his work with Nirvana
and Green Day
. 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 was heavily played on MTV
. It features The Patient (the centre character of the album, played by Lukas Haas
) dressed in a hospital gown, and being taken by death in the form of a Black Parade. On the main float stands My Chemical Romance playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". Behind the float are dozens of masked figures.
All the costumes were designed by Academy Award Winning Costume Designer, Colleen Atwood
(famous also for her frequent collaborations with Director Tim Burton
).
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's Revenge
-era makeup. The setting of the music video goes from a hospital to a surreal cityscape, with ash-covered wreckage, black snow 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 song "Mama". The video tells a basic version of the story behind The Black Parade quite closely. Gerard Way has said that it is "the definitive video for the record" which "summed up the album".
, peaking at #9. The song ranked at #17 on Rolling Stone
's "The 100 Best Songs of 2006". The song was made downloadable for Rock Band
and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
. ITV
used the song in a video montage in its final Formula One
broadcast at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
, after losing the rights to broadcast F1 in 2009 and beyond to the BBC
. The video featured several prominent F1 drivers (such as Nico Rosberg
, Jenson Button
, Rubens Barrichello
, David Coulthard
and Sebastian Vettel
) as well as ITV presenters (and retired commentator Murray Walker
) lipsynching to the song.
The working title of the song was named after an episode
of The Twilight Zone
.
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 seven weeks in a row, and is the band's only #1 on this chart to date. 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. The single was #26 of the top 40 singles of 2006 in the UK, selling 169,000 units. The song has been certified platinum
by the RIAA by selling over 1,000,000 copies.
Version 1 (promotional CD)
Version 2 (CD and 7" vinyl)
Version 3 (7" vinyl)
Version 4 (CD)
Version 5 (digital download)
Version 6 (digital download)
Single (music)
In music, a single or record single is a type of release, typically a recording of fewer tracks than an LP or a CD. This can be released for sale to the public in a variety of different formats. In most cases, the single is a song that is released separately from an album, but it can still appear...
and fifth track
Track (CD)
On an optical disc, a track or title is a subdivision of its content. Specifically, it is a consecutive set of sectors on the disc containing a block of data. One session may contain one or more tracks of the same or different types...
from My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance
My Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...
's third studio album, The Black Parade
The Black Parade
The Black Parade is the third studio album by American rock band My Chemical Romance. Released on October 23, 2006 through Reprise Records, it was produced by Rob Cavallo, who has also produced albums for Green Day. The album is the first on which Bob Bryar plays drums. It is a rock opera centering...
. It was released on September 11, 2006 on iTunes
ITunes
iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....
and October 9, 2006 on CD
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...
. It is the band's eighth single. The studio version was available on MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
on September 2, 2006.
Music video
Samuel Bayer
Samuel David Bayer is an American commercial, music video and film director, and cinematographer.-Early life:Bayer was born in Syracuse, New York...
, known for his work with Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
and Green Day
Green Day
Green Day is an American punk rock band formed in 1987. The band consists of lead vocalist and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong, bassist and backing vocalist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool...
. 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 was heavily played on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
. It features The Patient (the centre character of the album, played by Lukas Haas
Lukas Haas
Lukas Daniel Haas is an American actor, known for roles both as a child and as an adult. His career has spanned more than 25 years during which time he has appeared in more than 36 feature films, as well as a number of television shows and theater productions.-Early life and career:Haas was born...
) dressed in a hospital gown, and being taken by death in the form of a Black Parade. On the main float stands My Chemical Romance playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". Behind the float are dozens of masked figures.
All the costumes were designed by Academy Award Winning Costume Designer, Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood
Colleen Atwood is an American costume designer.Atwood has been nominated for an Academy Award for Best Costume Design nine times and won Academy Awards for the movies Chicago in 2002, Memoirs of a Geisha in 2006, and Alice in Wonderland in 2011. Atwood has collaborated several times with...
(famous also for her frequent collaborations with Director Tim Burton
Tim Burton
Timothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
).
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's Revenge
Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge
* Track 11 is commonly censored as "It's Not a Fashion Statement, It's a Deathwish"-Charts:-Singles:-Release history:-Personnel:Band*Frank Iero – rhythm guitar, backing vocals*Matt Pelissier – drums*Ray Toro – lead guitar, backing vocals...
-era makeup. The setting of the music video goes from a hospital to a surreal cityscape, with ash-covered wreckage, black snow 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
Liza Minnelli
Liza May Minnelli is an American actress and singer. She is the daughter of singer and actress Judy Garland and film director Vincente Minnelli....
plays the character of "Mother War" in the song "Mama". The video tells a basic version of the story behind The Black Parade quite closely. Gerard Way has said that it is "the definitive video for the record" which "summed up the album".
Promotion
The song became the group's first number one in the UK on October 15, 2006, staying there for two weeks, and later rose to number one on the Modern Rock charts on October 26, 2006, where it would stay for seven weeks. It is the band's most enduring success and their highest-charting single to date on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
, peaking at #9. The song ranked at #17 on Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
's "The 100 Best Songs of 2006". The song was made downloadable for Rock Band
Rock Band
Rock Band is a music video game developed by Harmonix Music Systems, published by MTV Games and Electronic Arts. It is the first title in the Rock Band series. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were released in the United States on November 20, 2007, while the PlayStation 2 version was...
and Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock
Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock is a music video game and the sixth main entry in the Guitar Hero series for the PlayStation 3, Wii, and Xbox 360 consoles. The game was released September 24, 2010 in Europe, September 28, 2010 in North America and September 29, 2010 in Australia...
. ITV
ITV
ITV is the major commercial public service TV network in the United Kingdom. Launched in 1955 under the auspices of the Independent Television Authority to provide competition to the BBC, it is also the oldest commercial network in the UK...
used the song in a video montage in its final Formula One
Formula One
Formula One, also known as Formula 1 or F1 and referred to officially as the FIA Formula One World Championship, is the highest class of single seater auto racing sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile . The "formula" designation in the name refers to a set of rules with which...
broadcast at the 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
2008 Brazilian Grand Prix
The 2008 Brazilian Grand Prix was a Formula One motor race held on November 2, 2008, at the Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, in São Paulo, Brazil. It was the 18th and final race of the 2008 Formula One season. The race, contested over 71 laps, was won by Ferrari driver Felipe Massa...
, after losing the rights to broadcast F1 in 2009 and beyond to the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. The video featured several prominent F1 drivers (such as Nico Rosberg
Nico Rosberg
Nico Erik Rosberg is a racing driver for the Mercedes GP Formula One team. He races under the German flag in Formula One, although he competed for Finland earlier in his career...
, Jenson Button
Jenson Button
Jenson Alexander Lyons Button MBE is a British Formula One driver currently signed to McLaren. He was the 2009 World Drivers' Champion.Button began karting at the age of eight and achieved early success, before progressing to car racing in the British Formula Ford Championship and the British...
, Rubens Barrichello
Rubens Barrichello
Rubens Gonçalves "Rubinho" Barrichello is a Brazilian Formula One racing driver. He is currently racing for Williams F1.Barrichello has scored the seventh highest points total in Formula One history. Barrichello drove for Ferrari from to , as Michael Schumacher's teammate, enjoying considerable...
, David Coulthard
David Coulthard
David Marshall Coulthard, MBE, , sometimes known as DC, is a British former Formula One racing driver from Scotland.Coulthard, who was born in Dumfries and raised nearby in Twynholm, made his Formula One debut in 1994 and won 13 Grands Prix in a career spanning 15 seasons...
and Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel
Sebastian Vettel is a German Formula One racing driver, currently driving for Red Bull Racing. He is the current World Champion, having won the championship in and ....
) as well as ITV presenters (and retired commentator Murray Walker
Murray Walker
Graeme Murray Walker, OBE is a former Formula One motorsport commentator...
) lipsynching to the song.
The working title of the song was named after an episode
The Four of Us Are Dying
"The Four of Us Are Dying" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. It originally aired on CBS on January 1, 1960.-Synopsis:...
of The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
.
Charts
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
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
Helena (song)
"Helena" is a song by American rock band My Chemical Romance, and is the third single from their second studio album, Three Cheers for Sweet Revenge...
"). In addition it topped Modern Rock Tracks for seven weeks in a row, and is the band's only #1 on this chart to date. The single knocked Razorlight
Razorlight
Razorlight are a UK based indie rock band formed in 2002. They are primarily known in the UK, having topped the charts with the 2006 single "America" and its parent self-titled album, their second...
'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. The single was #26 of the top 40 singles of 2006 in the UK, selling 169,000 units. The song has been certified platinum
Music recording sales certification
Music recording sales certification is a system of certifying that a music recording has shipped or sold a certain number of copies, where the threshold quantity varies by type and by nation or territory .Almost all countries follow variations of the RIAA certification categories,...
by the RIAA by selling over 1,000,000 copies.
| Chart (2006-07) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian ARIA Singles Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
14 |
| Belgian (Flanders) Singles Chart | 50 |
| Czech IFPI Chart | 6 |
| Denmark Tracklist | 18 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 92 |
| European Hot 100 Singles | 5 |
| Finnish Singles Chart | 7 |
| Germany Germany Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate... Singles Chart |
58 |
| Irish Singles Chart Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association and compiled on behalf of the IRMA by Chart-Track. Chart rankings are based on sales, which are compiled through over-the-counter retail data captured... |
12 |
| Israel Top 20 | 1 |
| Italy Italy Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and... Singles Chart |
28 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 2 |
| Norwegian Norway Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million... Singles |
15 |
| Sweden Sweden Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund.... Singles Chart |
26 |
| Swiss Singles Chart | 64 |
| UK Singles Chart UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart is compiled by The Official Charts Company on behalf of the British record-industry. The full chart contains the top selling 200 singles in the United Kingdom based upon combined record sales and download numbers, though some media outlets only list the Top 40 or the Top 75 ... |
1 |
| UK Rock Chart UK Rock Chart The UK Rock Chart usually refers to the Top 40 Rock Singles and the Top 40 Rock Albums Chart compiled by the Official Charts Company from physical record sales in British retail outlets with larger than average genrespecific sales.... |
1 |
| U.S. Billboard Alternative Songs | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Pop 100 Pop 100 The Pop 100 was a songs chart that debuted in February 2005 and was released weekly by Billboard magazine in the United States until its discontinuation in 2009... |
11 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot 100 Billboard Hot 100 The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday... |
9 |
| U.S. Billboard Adult Pop Songs | 22 |
| U.S. Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks | 24 |
Year-end charts
| Charts (2007) | Position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 85 |
Chart successions
Track listing
- All songs written by My Chemical RomanceMy Chemical RomanceMy Chemical Romance is an American alternative rock band from New Jersey, formed in 2001. The band consists of lead vocalist Gerard Way, guitarists Ray Toro and Frank Iero, and bassist Mikey Way and have a diverse sound incorporating elements of punk, emo, glam metal, and progressive rock...
.
Version 1 (promotional CD)
Version 2 (CD and 7" vinyl)
Version 3 (7" vinyl)
Version 4 (CD)
Version 5 (digital download)
Version 6 (digital download)