Mr. Brightside

"Mr. Brightside" could just as well be "Mr. Gullible," but that doesn't sing very well. The song is based on what happened to Killers lead singer Brandon Flowers when he had a hunch his girlfriend was cheating on him. His suspicions were confirmed when he discovered her with another man at the Crown And Anchor pub in his hometown of Las Vegas. "I was asleep and I knew something was wrong," he recalled to Q magazine March 2009. "I have these instincts. I went to the Crown And Anchor and my girlfriend was there with another guy." Flowers is "Mr. Brightside" because he didn't truly believe his girl was cheating until he saw it with his own eager eyes.

"Mr. Brightside" was The Killers' first single, and it remains their most popular song. It was the first song Brandon Flowers and guitarist Dave Keuning wrote when they formed the band in 2001. The pair played it for the first time at an acoustic open mic night at a coffee shop in Vegas called Cafe Espresso Roma in January 2002. Adding bass player Mark Stoermer and drummer Ronnie Vannucci Jr. to the lineup, they refined the song and got a deal with the British indie label Lizard King, which pressed 500 copies of the song on CD that were released in the UK in September 2003. Their next single, "Somebody Told Me," was the winner, going to #3 in the UK in March 2004. Lizard King then released a new mix of "Mr. Brightside" that went to #10 that June, around the same time the song appeared on the band's debut album, Hot Fuss. This UK success got the attention of Island Records, which put out "Somebody Told Me" in America soon after but didn't have much luck with it - the song stalled at #51 in November 2004. They then issued "Mr. Brightside" in America and it took off, climbing to #10 in June 2005, long after the song was first released in the UK. By this time The Killers had refined their live show and had two more singles locked and loaded from the album: "All These Things That I've Done" and "Smile Like You Mean It." The group quickly established themselves as one of the most exciting and creative rock bands in America, but the UK found them first.

In the video, actress Izabella Miko (of Coyote Ugly) plays the girlfriend. Eric Roberts (Julia's brother) also stars in the video as the bad guy. This wasn't his first star turn in a major video: he also appeared in Mariah Carey's "We Belong Together." The clip was directed by Sophie Muller, who has done over 100 videos, including several for Gwen Stefani.