"Mayonaise" is a song by American

alternative rock Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from mainstream or commerci ...

band

The Smashing Pumpkins The Smashing Pumpkins (also referred to as simply Smashing Pumpkins) are an American alternative rock band from Chicago. Formed in 1988 by frontman and guitarist Billy Corgan, bassist D'arcy Wretzky, guitarist James Iha and drummer Jimmy Ch ...

, first released on their 1993 album ''

Siamese Dream ''Siamese Dream'' is the second studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released on July 27, 1993, on Virgin Records. Despite recording sessions fraught with difficulties and tensions, ''Siamese Dream'' debuted at num ...

''.

Composition

It was written by

James Iha (born March 26, 1968) is an American rock musician. He is best known as a guitarist and co-founder of the alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins. He was a member until the initial breakup in 2000. Among his musical projects of recent years ...

and Billy Corgan and was recorded from December 1992 to March 1993 at Triclops Sound Studios. According to Corgan, the whistling sound ( feedback) heard in "Mayonaise" came from a cheap guitar he bought, which, whenever he stopped playing it, created the whistling sound. This sound was then incorporated into the song. Corgan apparently got the title for the song after he looked "in isrefrigerator". Later, he stated in an interview with a Colombian radio station that the name stands for the phonetics of 'My Own Eyes'. Iha stated that he "...came up with those chords and did a demo of it, it was an instrumental demo of the song. I played it for Billy and he liked it, he came up with the vocal melody and the lyrics. We worked on the arrangement together." While appearing on the podcast REINVENTED with Jen Eckhart on 20 October 2022, Billy Corgan admitted that previous explanations for the song title were inside jokes and disclosed the true story. The band visited Japan in 1992 while touring Gish and noticed that the record company had mistranslated a lyric from

Gish ''Gish'' is the debut studio album by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, released in May 1991 through Caroline Records. Frontman Billy Corgan has variously described ''Gish'' as a "very spiritual album" and "an album about spir ...

into a fan booklet as "mayonnaise seas". The band thought this was funny and used "Mayonaise" as a temporary song title when recording

but it eventually stuck.

Versions

Several versions of the song are available. Before being officially released on ''

'', an acoustic mix (labeled as an outtake) of the ''Siamese Dream'' recording was featured on the Mashed Potatoes box set given to friends of the band in 1993-1994. It was also a part of the official promos ''Still Becoming Apart'' and '' The Smashing Pumpkins 1991-1998'', with a slightly phased acoustic guitar part and a

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

. Most recently, a live acoustic version was released on ''

Earphoria ''Earphoria'' is a live album by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins. It is the soundtrack of the band's '' Vieuphoria'' video. While the video has been widely available since its initial release, the CD was initially released as ...

'' and the

Vieuphoria ''Vieuphoria'' is a long form music video by American alternative rock band The Smashing Pumpkins, originally released on VHS on October 4, 1994 and DVD on November 26, 2002. It was certified gold by the RIAA in late 1996. The video consists of ...

video. The Vieuphoria version, originally broadcast in 1993 on the British television show ''Naked City'', features the band playing the song intertwined with footage of the band. On a 2007 Smashing Pumpkins tribute album compiled by MySpace and Spin, the song was covered by American

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wales ...

band The Academy Is... The band Emanuel also covered the song on the 2005 Smashing Pumpkins tribute album '' The Killer in You: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins''.

Reception

Despite having garnered considerable radio play and remaining a fan favorite, "Mayonaise" was never an officially released single. In 2012 it won a Rolling Stone readers poll for "The Best Smashing Pumpkins Songs" by "a significant margin".

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Mayonaise (Song) The Smashing Pumpkins songs 1993 songs Songs written by Billy Corgan Songs written by James Iha Song recordings produced by Billy Corgan Song recordings produced by Butch Vig Shoegaze songs