The band stated that the song was written in response to crowd disappointment at the fact that they never played encores. The song was planned to allow them to return to the stage, press play on a synthesiser and leave the stage again, but while writing the song it evolved into a project that the band quite liked, and it was turned from an experiment into a single. However, the band since have become noted for playing "Blue Monday" as an encore. "Blue Monday" was influenced by several songs. Hook said the song was "stolen" from the Donna Summer song "Our Love" from the "Bad Girls" album. Bernard Sumner said part of the arrangement came from "Dirty Talk", by Klein + M.B.O, the synthesised bassline from Sylvester's "You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)". Hook's bassline was derived from an Ennio Morricone soundtrack, "For a Few Dollars More": Hook said "I stole it" after watching the film of the same name in the studio. In the "Guardian," Clinton Heylin included Blue Monday on a list of "10 classic stolen pop songs" and said that the starting point for the song came from "Gerry and the Holograms", the 1979 title track by the novelty group of the same name, but Sumner denied this. Some rhythmic and synthesizer elements of the song had been used by the band in an earlier composition, "Video 5 8 6", in 1982, which evolved into the track "5 8 6", appearing on the band's 1983 album "Power, Corruption & Lies".