"Misery Business"
CD single cover art
Single by Paramore
from the album Riot!
B-side
ReleasedJune 4, 2007
Recorded2007
StudioThe House of Loud (New Jersey)
Genre
Length3:31
LabelFueled by Ramen
Songwriter(s)
Producer(s)David Bendeth
Paramore singles chronology
"All We Know"
(2006)		 "Misery Business"
(2007)		 "Hallelujah"
(2007)
Alternative cover
iTunes download cover
Music video
"Misery Business" on YouTube

"Misery Business" is a song by American rock band Paramore from their second studio album, Riot! (2007) and serves as the lead single from the album. The song was written about a past experience of the band's lead singer, Hayley Williams, which involved a male friend who she felt was being exploited by a girl; when Williams and her friend dated afterwards, she wrote the track in order to "finally explain my side of the story and feel freed of it all". The accompanying music video for "Misery Business" was the third to be directed by Shane Drake for the band, and Alternative Press named "Misery Business" the Video of the Year in 2007.

"Misery Business" is considered the band's breakthrough hit and is credited with introducing the band to a mainstream audience.[8][9][10] The track was commercially successful, peaking on the Billboard Hot 100 at No. 26 (for the week of January 12, 2008), making it the band's highest-charting single until "Ain't It Fun" reached No. 10 in 2014.[11] It also peaked at No. 3 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was the group's first charting single in the UK with more than 20,000 copies created within less than a year of the song's debut. It also succeeded in many countries including Mexico, Argentina, Chile, and Brazil. On June 2, 2022, the song was certified six times platinum in the United States, the first of the band's songs to have sold six million units.[12]

Concept

The phrase, "Misery Business", was first heard in the 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.[13] 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".[14] Later, Williams addressed the lyrics in the chorus:

But God does it feel so good
'Cause I got him where I want him now
And if you could then you know you would
'Cause God it just feels so
It just feels so good

Williams joked on Twitter on May 27, 2013, that it was about London's Heathrow Airport.[15] In May 2020, she finally revealed that it was about bandmate Josh Farro. She told Vulture, "When I was 13 or 14 and I had a crush on Josh, he didn't like me back. He would go hang out with his girlfriend, who I wrote 'Misery Business' about because I was a dick."[16]

Controversy

On September 7, 2018, Williams announced during a concert that the band will play the song "for the last time for a really long time", due to the lyric "Once a whore you’re nothing more, I’m sorry, that’ll never change", from the second verse that was deemed sexist and anti-feminist.[17] Williams did not sing the song again until the 2022 Coachella Festival, when she performed an acoustic version with Billie Eilish.[18] The song returned to Paramore's setlist during the band's Fall 2022 Tour.[19] Williams no longer sings the line where she refers to the girl as a "whore" in the second verse of this song because of both the controversy it had produced and Williams since evolving in her views. Speaking on the controversial line, she said,[20]

What I couldn't have known at the time was that I was feeding into a lie that I'd bought into, just like so many other teenagers—and many adults—before me.

Chart performance

At the time of the release of "Misery Business", Paramore was a guest on MTV's "Discover and Download" which gave the band time in the spotlight to reach out and explain the purpose of their album and how they wish to see it grow. This song is the group's first single to enter the Billboard Hot 100 chart. During the week of June 25, 2007, it debuted at #99 on the chart and reached #75 two weeks later before dropping off the chart in the following week. 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. It reached its peak position of #26 during the chart week of January 12, 2008. It was the band's highest-charting single at that time, prior to the release of "Ain't It Fun" in 2014, but "Misery Business" still remains the band's most-played song on the radio to date whereas Ain't It Fun never succeeded on alternative radio due to the band's change of style as well as not having the staying power "Misery Business" had, despite charting higher; leaving "Misery Business" as their most popular song to date. It peaked at #3 on the Hot Modern Rock Tracks chart. It also attained moderate crossover success, reaching #12 on Pop Songs chart and #31 on Adult Pop Songs 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.[21][22] It has sold 2,464,000 copies in the US as of June 18, 2014.[23]

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.

Critical reception

"Misery Business" is widely regarded as one of the band's best songs. In 2017, NME ranked the song number one on their list of the 10 greatest Paramore songs;[24] and, in 2021, Kerrang ranked the song number five on their list of the 20 greatest Paramore songs.[25]

Music video

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

The video starts out and has cut scenes of Paramore performing the song with an assortment of "RIOT!"s (a reference to the album's name) in the background all throughout the video. At the same time, a girl (Amy Paffrath),[26][27] presumably the "whore" as subject in the song, ensues terror onto students at a high school. She pushes aside cheerleaders, cuts off another girl's braid, further injures a boy in an arm sling, and ruins a relationship between a couple by kissing the boy right in front of the girl. In the end, the band members themselves confront her and Williams gives her a taste of her own medicine by taking out her bra inserts and wiping the make-up off her face, thus revealing the girl's true identity and putting an end to her egotistical reign at the high school.

As of June 2023, the song has over 262 million views on YouTube.[28]

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."[29]

Fueled by Ramen (FBR+) also released an alternate cut of the video that removes the high school clips and features only performance segments.[13]

Live performance

The band has consistently played the song live throughout their career apart from the gap where they decided to retire the song in 2018;[17] however, the decision was reversed in 2022 with a lyrical change advancing Williams' change of perspective. It is a vital part to any show they play; for many of their shows, the band would pretend to leave and suddenly re-appear to play their final song which would be Misery Business. Williams has acknowledged this in Paramore's recent shows and has made it a recognisable custom.[30] Although the band no longer do this, they still keep it near the end of their setlist.

Every time the band performs the track live, they pause the song midway briefly and invite fans up to sing the rest of the song.[31]

The track is also played differently live; the guitar riff in the bridge was altered and a different version was played live originally by Josh Farro prior to his departure and is now taken over by Taylor York. On the last line of the verse Williams used to change the line to the following, to reference the alternate guitar riff Farro used to play. This has been reversed since his departure.[32]

"Just watch my wildest dreams come true, not one of them- hey Josh!"

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.

US/Europe CD single
No.TitleLength
1."Misery Business"3:18
2."Stop This Song (Love Sick Melody)"3:23
Total length:6:41
Vinyl 1
No.TitleLength
1."Misery Business"3:18
2."My Hero" (Electronic Mix) (Foo Fighters cover)3:39
Total length:6:57
Vinyl 2
No.TitleLength
1."Misery Business"3:18
2."Sunday Bloody Sunday" (U2 cover)4:20
Total length:7:38
Vinyl Disc
No.TitleLength
1."Misery Business" 
2."This Circle" 

Charts

Certifications

Region CertificationCertified units/sales
Australia (ARIA)[50] 3× Platinum 210,000‡
United Kingdom (BPI)[51] 2× Platinum 1,200,000‡
United States (RIAA)[12] 6× Platinum 6,000,000‡

‡ Sales+streaming figures based on certification alone.

In various media

Covers

Other references

Interpolations

  • Singer-songwriter Olivia Rodrigo interpolated "Misery Business" into her 2021 single "Good 4 U", for which Williams and Farro consequently received co-writing credits.[56] However, Rodrigo did not give songwriting credits until the similarities between the two songs were noticed, leading to allegations of plagiarism.[57][58]

Release history

Country Date Version
United States July 10, 2007 Original
Ireland January 6, 2008 Re-release
United Kingdom

References

  1. ↑ Josh Chesler. "10 Best Pop-Punk Songs of All Time". Phoenix New Times. Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  2. ↑ "20 Essential Pop Punk Tracks Everyone Should Know". NME. June 2, 2011. Retrieved December 9, 2016.
  3. ↑ "BBC - Chart Blog: Paramore - 'Misery Business'". Retrieved February 20, 2016.
  4. ↑ "15 emo classics that helped to shape the genre". don't bore us. December 16, 2021. Archived from the original on December 4, 2021.
  5. ↑ Lowry, Candace (October 21, 2014). "Songs Every Former Emo Kid Will Never Forget Crying To". BuzzFeed. Retrieved February 20, 2022.
  6. ↑ "Paramore Announce 2017 North America Tour - Audio Ink Radio". audioinkradio.com. May 16, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  7. ↑ Loudwire Staff (October 2, 2020). "The 66 Best Hard Rock Songs of the 21st Century". Loudwire. Retrieved September 10, 2022.
  8. ↑ Haruch, Steve. "Paramore broke the Nashville Curse and never looked back". Nashville Scene. SouthComm Communications. Archived from the original on July 8, 2015. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  9. ↑ Maura (July 6, 2009). "Paramore Hold On To Their Smarts". Idolator. Spin Media. Archived from the original on December 17, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  10. ↑ Cantor, Brian (March 11, 2014). "Chart Story: Paramore's "Ain't It Fun", MKTO's "Classic" Enter Top 50". Headline Planet. Cantortainment. Archived from the original on March 12, 2014. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  11. ↑ "AllAccess.com Alternative eWeekly". AllAccess. May 15, 2007. Archived from the original on August 21, 2016. Retrieved July 1, 2016.
  12. 1 2 "American single certifications – Paramore – Misery Business". Recording Industry Association of America. Retrieved June 3, 2022.
  13. 1 2 "FBR+". fbrplus. Archived from the original on July 10, 2011. Retrieved January 20, 2008.
  14. ↑ "redemption. it's a long story". paramoreband.livejournal. Retrieved October 12, 2007.
  15. ↑ Hayley from Paramore [@yelyahwilliams] (May 27, 2013). "Misery Business was written about the London Heathrow airport" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  16. ↑ Greenwood, Koltan (May 8, 2020). "Hayley Williams finally revealed who "Misery Business" is about". Alternative Press. Retrieved August 26, 2021.
  17. 1 2 "Paramore will no longer perform Misery Business live due to slut-shaming lyrics". Metro. September 10, 2018. Retrieved September 12, 2018.
  18. ↑ Linzimeir, Taylor (April 24, 2022). "Hayley Williams Sings 'Misery Business' for First Time Since 2018 With Billie Eilish". Loudwire. Retrieved May 1, 2022.
  19. ↑ Andrew, Scottie (October 3, 2022). "Paramore plays 'Misery Business' again after retiring it due to lyrics controversy". CNN. Retrieved October 10, 2022.
  20. ↑ "Paramore's Hayley Williams Apologizes For Controversial "Misery Business" Lyric". Nylon. August 1, 2017. Retrieved June 9, 2023.
  21. ↑ "Gold & Platinum Searchable Database - March 29, 2013". RIAA. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  22. ↑ Grein, Paul (December 22, 2010). "Week Ending Dec. 19, 2010: Michael Wouldn't Have Liked This | Chart Watch - Yahoo! Music". New.music.yahoo.com. Archived from the original on October 2, 2012. Retrieved March 29, 2013.
  23. ↑ Grein, Paul (June 18, 2014). "Chart Watch: PSY & Snoop Attack Your Brain Cells". Yahoo! Music. Retrieved June 19, 2014.
  24. ↑ Bartleet, Larry (May 12, 2017). "Paramore: their 10 best songs – ranked". NME. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  25. ↑ Law, Sam (January 5, 2021). "The 20 greatest Paramore songs – ranked". Kerrang. Retrieved April 19, 2022.
  26. ↑ "GETTING DIRTY WITH AMY PAFFRATH". Hydrogen Mag. July 28, 2015. Archived from the original on August 30, 2016. Retrieved August 10, 2020.
  27. ↑ Paffrath, Amy [@amypaffrath] (May 16, 2018). "It was SOOOOO much fun! One of my first big jobs. I LOVE their music. Still a huge fan. Xo" (Tweet). Retrieved December 3, 2019 – via Twitter.
  28. ↑ Paramore: Misery Business [OFFICIAL VIDEO], retrieved June 9, 2023
  29. ↑ "Kerrang Awards 2007: The Winners". Digital Spy. August 24, 2007. Retrieved August 26, 2007.
  30. ↑ "Hayley talks about leaving & coming back". Youtube. Retrieved November 8, 2022.
  31. ↑ "Fans are invited up in Manchester". Manchester Evening News. Retrieved April 19, 2023.
  32. ↑ "Someone sings bridge & says "Hey Josh"". Youtube. Retrieved November 6, 2010.
  33. ↑ "ARIA Report Issue 910 - August 13, 2007" ARIA Top 100 Singles. National Library of Australia. Retrieved February 16, 2008.
  34. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Canadian Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  35. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Canada CHR/Top 40)". Billboard. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  36. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Canada Rock)". Billboard. Retrieved February 4, 2018.
  37. ↑ "Paramore – Misery Business" (in German). GfK Entertainment charts. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  38. ↑ "Nederlandse Top 40 – week 8, 2008" (in Dutch). Dutch Top 40. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  39. ↑ "PORTUGAL SINGLES TOP 50". Associação Fonográfica Portuguesa. June 1, 2008. Retrieved March 24, 2022.
  40. ↑ "Official Scottish Singles Sales Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  41. ↑ "Official Singles Chart Top 100". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  42. ↑ "Official Rock & Metal Singles Chart Top 40". Official Charts Company. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  43. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Hot 100)". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  44. ↑ "Billboard Pop 100 - January 5, 2021" (PDF). Billboard. Nielsen Business Media, Inc. Retrieved May 3, 2021.
  45. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Adult Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  46. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Alternative Airplay)". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  47. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Pop Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved December 16, 2014.
  48. ↑ "Paramore Chart History (Hot Rock & Alternative Songs)". Billboard. Retrieved June 2, 2021.
  49. ↑ "Alternative Songs - Year-End 2007". Billboard. Retrieved May 3, 2017.
  50. ↑ "ARIA Charts – Accreditations – 2023 Singles" (PDF). Australian Recording Industry Association. Retrieved November 1, 2023.
  51. ↑ "British single certifications – Paramore – Misery Business". British Phonographic Industry. Retrieved December 8, 2023.
  52. ↑ "Music from Degrassi: The Next Generation". AllMusic. Retrieved July 18, 2017.
  53. ↑ Lee Wilson. "Top 5 Best Paramore Songs". Redbull. Retrieved July 2, 2017.
  54. ↑ paramoreband (paramoreband) wrote, April 23, 2008 21:26:00 (April 23, 2008). "paramoreband: ]M[etal as ]H[ell". Paramoreband.livejournal.com. Retrieved March 29, 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  55. ↑ "Misery Business". Archived from the original on July 20, 2011. Retrieved June 14, 2011.
  56. ↑ White, Jack (August 25, 2021). "Paramore's Hayley Williams given writing credit on Olivia Rodrigo's Number 1 single Good 4 U". Official Charts Company. Retrieved August 25, 2021.
  57. ↑ "Olivia Rodrigo gives Paramore a writing credit on Good 4 U". BBC News. August 25, 2021. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
  58. ↑ Henry, Ben. "Olivia Rodrigo Has Reportedly Given Up Millions Of Dollars In Royalties To Taylor Swift And Hayley Williams After Being Accused Of Copying Their Songs". BuzzFeed News. Retrieved March 21, 2023.
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