"Mary" was the third and final single from the

Britpop Britpop was a mid-1990s British-based music culture movement that emphasised Britishness. It produced brighter, catchier alternative rock, partly in reaction to the popularity of the darker lyrical themes of the US-led grunge music and to the ...

band

Supergrass Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz (lead vocals, guitar) and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn (bass, backing vocals) and Danny Goffey ( ...

' eponymous third album. Released in November 1999, it reached number 36 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. This was the last Supergrass single to be released on

cassette Cassette may refer to: Technology * Cassette tape (or ''musicassette'', ''audio cassette'', ''cassette tape'', or ''tape''), a worldwide standard for analog audio recording and playback ** Cassette single (or "Cassingle"), a music single in the ...

Chord progression and lead guitar breaks

Mary is written in the key of Cm. The verses and chorus both employ the same chord progression of G♯-F-Cm, with guitarist

Gaz Coombes Gaz Coombes (born 8 March 1976) is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the English alternative rock band Supergrass. He first entered the music scene aged 14 as the lead singer of the ...

utilising single string lead breaks on the 5th (A) string with an

E-bow The EBow, short for electronic bow or energy bow, is an electronic device used for playing string instruments, most often the electric guitar. It is manufactured by Heet Sound Products, of Los Angeles, California. It was invented by Greg Heet i ...

. It is worth noting that the opening chord progression of the song bears some similarities to

Carl Orff Carl Orff (; 10 July 1895 – 29 March 1982) was a German composer and music educator, best known for his cantata ''Carmina Burana'' (1937). The concepts of his Schulwerk were influential for children's music education. Life Early life Car ...

Carmina Burana ''Carmina Burana'' (, Latin for "Songs from Benediktbeuern" 'Buria'' in Latin is a manuscript of 254 poems and dramatic texts mostly from the 11th or 12th century, although some are from the 13th century. The pieces are mostly bawdy, irreverent ...

Track listing

CD1 CDRS6531 / TC TCR6531 # "Mary" (4:02) # "

Pumping on Your Stereo "Pumping on Your Stereo" is a song by Supergrass, released as their first single from their self-titled third album (1999) on 24 May 1999. The single reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and in New Zealand. It also peaked at No. 13 on the Can ...

(Live at

Peel Acres John Robert Parker Ravenscroft (30 August 1939 – 25 October 2004), known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey (DJ) and radio presenter. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly fr ...

)" (3:12) # "Strange Ones (Live at Peel Acres)" (3:57) CD2 CDR6531 # "Mary (Live at Lamacq)" (4:12) # "

Richard III Richard III (2 October 145222 August 1485) was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 26 June 1483 until his death in 1485. He was the last king of the House of York and the last of the Plantagenet dynasty. His defeat and death at the Battl ...

(Live at Peel Acres)" (3:29) # "

Sun Hits the Sky "Sun Hits the Sky" is a song by English rock band Supergrass. It was the third single from the band's second album ''In It for the Money''. It was released in June 1997 and reached number 10 in the UK Singles Chart. The B-side, "Some Girls Are B ...

(Live at Peel Acres)" (4:44) LTD. ED. Silver 7" R6531 # "Mary" (4:02) # "Mary (Live at Lamacq)" (4:12)

Album Artwork

Photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

: Nick Veasey The single features a photo of a stone angel statue at night, whilst the 2nd CD of the CD release shows a similarly crafted stone statue of a man in daylight.

Music video

Conceived as an homage to the

Hammer Horror Hammer Film Productions Ltd. is a British film production company based in London. Founded in 1934, the company is best known for a series of Gothic horror and fantasy films made from the mid-1950s until the 1970s. Many of these involve classi ...

films from the 1950s, the accompanying

music video A music video is a video of variable duration, that integrates a music song or a music album with imagery that is produced for promotion (marketing), promotional or musical artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a m ...

features three moderately scary scenes, always corresponding to the song's "falsetto screaming" chorus: a room with books flying off the shelves and objects exploding because of

poltergeist In ghostlore, a poltergeist ( or ; German for "rumbling ghost" or "noisy spirit") is a type of ghost or spirit that is responsible for physical disturbances, such as loud noises and objects being moved or destroyed. Most claims or fictional descr ...

, a housewife vomiting blood in front of her family (including two children) and a girl drowning in a bathtub while blood spouts from the sink. The video was banned from television due to being "too frightening". An edited version was released, replacing the aforementioned scary scenes with pictures of

onions An onion (''Allium cepa'' L., from Latin ''cepa'' meaning "onion"), also known as the bulb onion or common onion, is a vegetable that is the most widely cultivated species of the genus ''Allium''. The shallot is a botanical variety of the onion ...

References

1999 singles 1999 songs Music videos directed by Sophie Muller Parlophone singles Songs written by Rob Coombes Supergrass songs {{1990s-rock-song-stub