“The Ballad of Mona Lisa” by Panic! at the Disco

"The Ballad of Mona Lisa" opened the Vices & Virtues chapter for Panic! at the Disco in February 2011, the first single from the band's third album, issued on Fueled by Ramen and DCD2. But the song was older than the record: Brendon Urie had the idea some four years earlier, before the band had even toured Pretty. Odd., and by his telling it sat on his laptop gathering dust.

Dusted off, it became one of the first songs in the running for the album and a spark for the rest of it. Urie wrote it about his own struggles and convictions, and the credits share it with Spencer Smith and producers John Feldmann and Butch Walker. It plays like a grand, dressed-up confession, and critics took to it on its way to number 89 on the Billboard Hot 100.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.