"Welcome to the Black Parade" is a song by American rock band My Chemical Romance, from their third studio album The Black Parade (2006). It was released on September 12, 2006, as the album's lead single, with the studio version available on the band's Myspace on September 2, 2006. The music video for the single was recognized as MTV's "Greatest Music Video of the Century" in 2017.[1] The song topped the UK Singles Chart, reached number nine on the US Billboard Hot 100 and was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.[2]
"Welcome to the Black Parade" has been described as emo,[4][5][6]pop-punk,[7][8]alternative rock,[9] and hard rock.[10] My Chemical Romance started writing the song since their start as a band, although in a different style. It was inspired and heavily influenced by Frank Sinatra's "My Way", was slower, and was called "The Five of Us Are Dying". The band did not include it in their first two albums due to their feeling it was incomplete. After moving to Los Angeles to make their third album, they added a fast punk beat, changed the lyrics, and altered the chords of the chorus. The recording process was "very complex" due to the many layers in the song but "fun", according to guitarist Ray Toro, who extolled the end result:[11]
"My two favorite tracks are 'Welcome to the Black Parade' and 'Famous Last Words'. 'Welcome to the Black Parade' is like our 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. It’s probably the most epic song on the record. I love how it came together."
Toro used a Les Paul with a Seymour DuncanPhat Cat pickup. His Marshall DSL100 amplifier broke down during preproduction, so instead he used a Marshall JCM800 borrowed from producer Rob Cavallo. The JCM800 continued to be used for the recording sessions, since the band liked its loud and "ball[sy]" sound.[11]
Two 15-second excerpts from the song. The first is of the piano intro to the song, with its iconic starting note of G5; the other is of the song's chorus, with a more rock-oriented sound.
The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, known for his work with Nirvana and Green Day.[12] The music video was released on September 26, 2006, in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006, in the US. It was heavily played on MTV. It features the Patient (the main 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.[13]
The setting of the music video transitions from a hospital room to a surreal cityscape with ash-covered wreckage, snow, black confetti, and destroyed buildings.[14]
Tom Breihan of the Village Voice regarded the video as "revealing a new stage of [My Chemical Romance's] persona".[15] He also ranked it 7th on the 10 best music videos of 2006.[16]
All the costumes were designed by costume designer Colleen Atwood. The costumes have inspired outfits, such as Lil Nas X's during his 2022 Grammy's performance.[17] Other artists that have referenced the marching band uniforms include Post Malone.[18]
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 100, peaking at number 9. The song ranked at number 17 on Rolling Stone's "The 100 Best Songs of 2006".[19] It was nominated for the Kerrang! Award for Best Single.
Critical reception
"Welcome to the Black Parade" received critical acclaim.[20]Time magazine's Josh Tyrangiel ranked the song in his top 10 songs of 2006, calling it "audacious, goofy and insanely catchy attempt at merging "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Born to Run" into a rock opera" and saying it was a sign of an "Us vs. Them moment in the generational divide".[21]David Fricke from Rolling Stone praised Way's "full rock-hero tilt" singing of the vocal hook ("We'll carry on.").[22]Entertainment Weekly positively compared the song to "Bohemian Rhapsody".[23] The Village Voice said pollsters generally preferred the song to the album.[24]
Chart performance
The song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 at number 71 for the chart week of September 30, 2006, becoming their highest debut for a single. It peaked at number 9 on the Hot 100 in its 17th and 18th week on the chart, becoming the band's first and only top ten Hot 100 hit. "Welcome to the Black Parade" became and currently is their highest-charting single, beating their 2005 single "Helena" at number 33, their second-highest-charting single. In addition, it topped Modern Rock Tracks for seven weeks in a row, and is the band's only number one on this chart to date. "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" was their previous highest-charting single on Modern Rock Tracks, where it peaked at number 4.
In the UK, the single knocked Razorlight's "America" off the number one spot on October 15, 2006, after extensive airplay. The single was number 26 in the UK's top 40 singles of 2006, selling 169,000 units. The song was certified double platinum in the UK on August 26, 2022, representing sales of at least 1.2 million copies.[25]
Legacy
The solo piano intro of the song, which opens on a single G5 note held for the duration of a half note, has become iconic due to the song's popularity, especially among fans of My Chemical Romance and the wider genre, where it is seen as an inside joke and nostalgic of the mid-2000s emo subculture. Andrew Lloyd Webber, for example, asked his Twitter followers what they thought when listening to the note, as a reference to the song.[26] The note has been used to promote emo-themed event Emo Fight[27] as well as The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts, a reissue of The Black Parade.[28]
The song was featured in the ending scene of the Netflix TV series Lucifer,[29] and the opening scene to the film Clerks III.[30]
In July 2023, in the wake of comments perceived as anti-LGBTQ by Florida governor and presidential candidate Ron DeSantis, the band Sub-Radio released a viral parody of the song called Welcome to the Pride Parade, replacing the lyric "We'll carry on" with "You're scaring Ron."[34]
* Sales figures based on certification alone. ^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. ‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.
^ abcKing, Kat (July 16, 2007). "Ray Toro of My Chemical Romance". Guitar Pickups, Bass Pickups, Pedals. Archived from the original on December 2, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^Breihan, Tom (April 16, 2007). "Music Videos Get Small". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on August 1, 2021. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^Breihan, Tom (December 14, 2006). "The Year's Best Music Videos". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^Collis, Clark (October 23, 2006). "The Black Parade". EW.com. Archived from the original on March 17, 2017. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^Kamps, Garrett (January 30, 2007). "How to Be an American Idiot". The Village Voice. Archived from the original on April 17, 2022. Retrieved April 17, 2022.
^Tyrangiel, Josh (December 20, 2006). "Top 10 Everything: Songs". Time. Time Magazine. Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2006.
