Monday Music "Our House" by Madness

     It has been a crazy weekend and the Superbowl was no different, I was taking my son to school this morning, Yes I had taken a day off.  Not for superbowl reasons, my team the Falcons got creamed again...so I really had no skin in this, I just wanted a good game.  We spent the weekend running all over the place doing scout stuff and then we are taking Dave Ramsey's financial peace university course.  then watching the Superbowl.  All I can say about the Superbowl was that it was a good game like I wanted, down to the wire....and the pats got lucky when it counted.    I had taken the day off because there was some stuff that I wanted to get done and with my working days, made it difficult to do. 
     Since the weekend was "madness" I remembered the group "Madness" from the British invasion in the early 80's and I liked the song and the quirky video.  I almost used the song "Just got Lucky" for the New England patriots, but I had used that song a few weeks ago.  I havn't used the same song twice in all the time I have been doing "Monday Music".  Except on Christmas with the song"Do they know it is Christmas", part of the BandAid for Africa. from the mid 80's.

"Our House" is a single by English ska band Madness, from their UK album The Rise & Fall and their US compilation Madness.
     
Released in November 1982, it peaked at #5 in the UK singles chart. In 1983, "Our House" was their biggest hit in the USA, reaching #7 on the Billboard Hot 100. On the USA dance chart the song peaked at #21. Though Madness produced many successful singles over a period of 20 years especially in their native United Kingdom, the enormous American popularity of "Our House" means that they are often regarded as a one hit wonder in the USA (though their version of "It Must Be Love" also subsequently entered the USA top 40). "Our House" won Best Song at the May 1983 Ivor Novello awards.
The satirical program Spitting Image did a version of "Our House" with the lyrics altered to be about the collapse of the real estate market, and a video parodying Madness' style. A musical called Our House, featuring Madness songs, ran in London's West End between October 2002 and August 2003. A recording of the show was broadcast on BBC Three and was released as a DVD. An altered version of the song was used in a Maxwell House commercial and the real version was featured in a montage for an episode of the BBC comedy, My Family. The original recording was also used as the theme for a 1998 ITV docusoap series, The Estate Agents, as well as for a 2004 American reality game, House of Dreams. The song also featured in a 2007-08 series of TV advertisements for Bird's Eye in which Suggs appeared, as well as an advertisement for the 2008 ABC reality game show Opportunity Knocks, and in episode 4 of season 3 of US TV show Brothers & Sisters, during the yard sale scene. In 2010, a mashup of "Jingle Bells" and "Our House", created by New York music and audio branding company Expansion Team, was used in a Christmastime commercial for Verizon. In 1985 "Our House" was the theme song for a children's drama series, Dodger, Bonzo and the Rest. The version featured on the show was performed by the cast members. At the 2012 Olympic Games Madness performed "Our House" in the closing Olympic ceremonies during an elaborate light show with scores of dancers. It receives constant airplay by radio stations.

The B-side, "Walking With Mr. Wheeze", is an instrumental with occasional scratch mix effects. The title is a play on "Groovin' With Mr. Bloe", an instrumental hit of 1970 by the session group Mr. Bloe. In 1984, Madness performed Our House on the episode "Sick" of The Young Ones.

 The official Video
    The video depicts the band acting out the song's lyrics in an old Victorian terraced house. The song's lyrics mostly describe the working-class family lifestyle, and the band acts them out by portraying such a family in the video. The band plays their instruments in the living room, prepares for work and school as the family plays squash and relaxes in a hot tub. The video also includes exterior shots of various other houses including Buckingham Palace. It was filmed near Willesden Junction.