"Welcome to the Black Parade" | ||||||||
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Single by My Chemical Romance | ||||||||
from the album The Black Parade | ||||||||
B-side | "Heaven Help Us" | |||||||
Released | September 12, 2006 | |||||||
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Recorded | April 2006 | |||||||
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Label | Reprise | |||||||
Writer(s) | My Chemical Romance | |||||||
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My Chemical Romance singles chronology | ||||||||
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"Welcome to the Black Parade" (also going by the shortened title "The Black Parade" and originally titled "The Five of Us Are Dying") is the first single and fifth track from My Chemical Romance's third studio album, The Black Parade. It was released on September 11, 2006 on iTunes and October 9, 2006 on CD. It is the band's eighth single. The studio version was available on Myspace on September 2, 2006. It was named one of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's 500 Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll. The cover art of the single is the only artwork where the band appears, with the exception of the cover art for "The Ghost of You", where they are shown as silhouettes.
The video for the single was directed by Samuel Bayer, known for his work with Nirvana and Green Day. The music video was released on September 26, 2006 in the UK and Canada, and was released on September 27, 2006 in the U.S. It was heavily played on MTV. It features the Patient (the main character of the album, played by Lukas Haas) dressed in a hospital gown, and being taken by death in the form of a "Black Parade". On the main float stands My Chemical Romance playing "Welcome to the Black Parade". Behind the float are dozens of masked figures.
All the costumes were designed by Academy Award Winning costume designer Colleen Atwood. The setting of the music video transitions from a hospital room to a surreal cityscape with ash-covered wreckage, black snow and destroyed buildings. The video features four of the main characters: the Patient, Fear, Regret, and Mother War. Mother War is the woman in the Victorian-era gown and gas mask. The video tells a basic version of the story behind The Black Parade quite closely. Gerard Way has said that it is "the definitive video for the record" which "summed up the album".