Whether you love it or loathe it, the statistics for ‘Mr. Brightside’ speak for themselves: as of 2024, it has been the longest-charting single in the UK, having spent nearly eight years (408 weeks, to be exact) in the Top 100 chart. Mr. Brightside has also been certified as reaching 10x Platinum status – that’s a whopping 6 million units.

Oh, and it was the band’s first single. Not a bad start, I guess.

All of the impressive sales figures for ‘Mr. Brightside’ account for why it’s still a mainstay of gig set lists around the world in spite of being over 20 years old; I’d guess that I’ve probably performed this song 200+ times, and I still haven’t got bored of it. Why? Because the bassline is actually pretty interesting and well-crafted for an indie-rock song.

The Killers – ‘Mr. Brightside’ bass transcription PDF

‘Mr. Brightside’ bass performance notes

Here are some observations that might help in playing ‘Mr. Brightside’:

• The key of Db major is pretty horrible to read at first glance; the bass and guitars are detuned on the recording, but I prefer to stay in standard tuning wherever possible. Many bands also play this in D major, so be prepared to mentally ‘bump it up’ if you’re taking the chart on a gig (just scrub out the key signature and replace it with two sharps!)
• The bass part on the recording sounds like it was played with a pick and some overdrive; these are optional, rather than essential
• If you want a real laugh, try picking the whole thing using only downstrokes
• The prechorus is my favourite part of the song, because the harmony and the bassline suddenly get really interesting; notice how there’s a nice rhythmic and melodic motif in the second bar of every chord that gets adapted to fit the changing chord sequence.
• If we dig deeper into the prechorus bassline, we find that the motif outlines the chords as follows:
  • Bbm11: Root, 5th, 4th, b3rd
  • Absus4: Root, 6th, 5th, 4th
  • Gbmaj13: Root, 6th, 5th, #4th (Lydian harmony! In a 10x Platinum song!)
• The Middle 8 section features double stops in the bass part (two notes on adjacent strings played at the same time). Most are diatonic 3rds, but there’s one perfect 5th in there, too. I play them all on the D and G strings, which requires a fair amount of shifting but gives me the most clarity
• The song ends by hanging on an Ab (chord V in the key of Db). If the band you play with insists on resolving to the I chord, calmly pack away your gear, load it into your car, and drive away without saying a word to anyone. Don’t even look at them. Life is too short to be around people who can’t tolerate harmonic tension.