My Chemical Romance released “Welcome to the Black Parade” on September 12, 2006. Twenty years later, the single remains the defining entrance to 'The Black Parade', the band’s third studio album and the record that transformed its theatrical ambitions into a worldwide breakthrough.
The song arrived as the lead single from 'The Black Parade', which followed in October 2006 through Reprise Records. The concept album follows a dying character known as the Patient as he confronts his memories, fears and passage into the afterlife. “Welcome to the Black Parade” introduces that world through the memory of a father taking his child to see a marching band.
The finished track took years to find its identity. In a 2021 interview with Apple Music 1, Gerard Way said it began under the working title “The Five of Us Are Dying.” He called it “the hardest one to finish” and explained that the band considered leaving it off the album. The group eventually dismantled the earlier arrangement and rebuilt it with producer Rob Cavallo.
That process produced one of rock’s most recognizable openings. A lone piano note begins the song before the arrangement expands through marching drums, layered guitars, horns and a massive chorus. The five minute track moves through several distinct sections while keeping the Patient’s story at its center.
The accompanying video, directed by Samuel Bayer, gave the album’s central imagery a physical form. My Chemical Romance appear in black marching uniforms as the Patient encounters the Black Parade in a ruined landscape filled with masked figures, ash and confetti.
The single became My Chemical Romance’s first No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart. In the United States, it reached No. 9 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped the Alternative Songs chart. Billboard identifies it as the band’s only top 10 entry on the Hot 100.
“Welcome to the Black Parade” remained central to the band’s live identity through the original album cycle, its reunion and the later Long Live The Black Parade stadium shows. The song also returned in demo form as “The Five of Us Are Dying” on the 2016 anniversary edition 'The Black Parade/Living with Ghosts', documenting how extensively it changed before reaching its final form.
My Chemical Romance are now marking the larger album milestone with a 20th anniversary edition of 'The Black Parade'. According to the Official Charts Company, the collection arrives October 23 with the original album and six bonus tracks, including B sides and previously unavailable live material.
