"Boulevard of Broken Dreams" was a 1934 hit song by Al Dubin (words) and Harry Warren (music), set in Paris. The narrator says "I walk along the street of sorrow/The Boulevard of Broken Dreams/Where gigolo and gigolette/Can take a kiss without regret/So they forget their broken dreams." It was used in the 1952 film Moulin Rouge. It was a regional hit for Tony Bennett in 1950. It was covered by No Wave artist James White on his 1983 album Flaming Demonics. Marianne Faithfull also covered it in her Hal Willner produced weary/lush album Strange Weather. Monsieur Camembert featured it one their ARIA award-winning self-titled album, Monsieur Camembert (album), sung by Jacqi Stoddard. It was also re-arranged and covered by Diana Krall for her 2006 album From This Moment On and released as a bonus track on iTunes. Tony Bennett recorded a duet of the song with Sting for his last album.

"Boulevard of Broken Dreams" is the Grammy Award winning fourth track from Green Day's seventh studio album, American Idiot. The song was written by Green Day, with lyrics by lead singer Billie Joe Armstrong, and was co-produced by Green Day and Rob Cavallo. It was released as the album's second single on November 29, 2004; the single peaked at number two in the United States.

The song speaks from the point of view of American Idiot 's "main character", Jesus of Suburbia, and is a moderate midtempo song characterized by moody and depressing lyrics. This is in contrast to the previous track on the album, "Holiday", which illustrates Jesus of Suburbia's "high" of being in The City. MTV's Green Day Makes a Video described "Holiday" as a party, and "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" as the subsequent hangover.