Songfacts®:

• "Sunday Sunday" was written by frontman Damon Albarn on a Sunday while Blur was on the road in the US. The tour was going terribly, with American audiences showing greater interest in the growing grunge movement at the time. This left Albarn and the band feeling incredibly homesick. Consequently, Albarn crafted this sentimental ode to a traditional Sunday in the UK, mentioning activities such as gathering with family, enjoying a roast dinner, and going for a stroll in the park.
  
  That being said, "Sunday Sunday" isn't a completely positive portrayal of the UK. In the sleeve of Modern Life Is Rubbish, the song is subtitled as "Legislated Nostalgia." Coined by Douglas Coupland in his 1991 novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture, the phrase is defined as "to force a body of people to have memories they do not actually possess." As a result, "Sunday Sunday" can also be interpreted as a critique of this idealized, romanticized image of a conservative England.
• Guitarist Graham Coxon revealed in his 2022 memoir Verse, Chorus, Monster! that this song was inspired by the acclaimed works of Mike Leigh, the British film and theater director renowned for his kitchen-sink dramas. "'Sunday Sunday,' on Modern Life Is Rubbish, is a very Leigh-influenced song. For us, this was comfortable, even safe territory," Coxon wrote. "We always had to have a conceptual focus or drive, and we took away an awful lot from Leigh's work, especially Meantime, the film he made for Channel 4 in 1983. Damon and I used to watch and rewatch it on a scratchy VHS tape while we were still at school. The downtrodden, working-class Pollock family and the suburban interior and exterior landscapes accurately reflected the small-town England that all of us experienced while growing up."
• "Sunday Sunday" is an homage to music hall, a form of variety entertainment that gained popularity in Britain during the early Victorian era. This is particularly evident in the song's theatrical middle section, with the music dramatically accelerating in tempo. According to biographer Stuart Maconie, the boss of Blur's label, David Balfe, hated this part, stating: "When was the last time you heard a hit single that sped up in the middle?"
• This song opens with a huge stomping beat courtesy of drummer Dave Rowntree. In an interview with Produce Like a Pro in 2021, Coxon said he wanted to keep these drums as loud as possible, but "Sunday Sunday" producer Steve Lovell insisted on turning them down. Pulp drummer Nick Banks later told biographer Mark Sturdy that he thinks Blur stole the idea for this introduction from the song "Love Is Blind" off the Pulp album Separation.
  
  "Sunday Sunday" also features the Kick Horns, a brass session band who have worked with artists as varied as Beyoncé, the Spice Girls, and The Rolling Stones.
• The official video for "Sunday Sunday" depicts Blur recreating a traditional British caravan holiday, albeit in the middle of London's sweeping skyscrapers and tower blocks. It was directed by Dwight Clarke, who was also the creative force behind the video for Modern Life Is Rubbish single "Chemical World."
• While Coxon reportedly once said he'd happily never perform "Sunday Sunday" again, it continues to be a live favorite. During Blur's concert at Wembley Stadium in London on July 9, 2023 (which coincidentally fell on a Sunday), Albarn performed a part of this song from the inside of a gigantic oven illuminated with pulsating strobe lights.
• "Sunday Sunday" was the third and final single released from Modern Life Is Rubbish after "For Tomorrow" and "Chemical World." It was the highest-charting single from the album, reaching #26 in the UK.
  
  The song is also noted for its range of B-sides. In 1993, during the competitive era of music formats, labels were desperate to find additional material to release on EPs to boost sales. Blur used this as an opportunity to include six previously unheard demos, recorded under their former name of Seymour, across the 7-inch vinyl, 12-inch vinyl, and CD1 pressings of "Sunday Sunday": "Tell Me, Tell Me," "Long Legged," "Mixed Up," "Dizzy," "Fried," and "Shimmer."
  
  On the CD2 pressing of "Sunday Sunday," also titled "The Sunday Sunday Popular Community Song CD," Blur included two covers of traditional music-hall songs: "Daisy Bell (Bicycle Built for Two)" and "Let's All Go Down the Strand." Justine Frischmann, the frontwoman of Elastica and Albarn's girlfriend at the time, is among the backing vocalists heard on the recordings. Coxon is said to have since referred to the covers as "one of the worst moments in the band's career."