Misery Business

"Misery Business"
CD single cover art
Single by Paramore
from the album Riot!
B-side
ReleasedJune 4, 2007
Recorded2006
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]

  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. ^ Cite error: The named reference RIAA was invoked but never defined (see the help page).