"Mary Had a Little Boy" is a 1990 song recorded by German

Eurodance Euro-Dance (sometimes referred to as Euro-NRG, Euro-electronica or Euro) is a genre of electronic dance music that originated in the late 1980s in Europe. It combines many elements of hip hop, techno, Hi-NRG, house music, and Euro-Disco. This ...

group

Snap! Snap! is a German Eurodance group formed in 1989 by Record producer, producers Michael Münzing and Luca Anzilotti. The act has been through a number of line-up changes over the years, including American singers, songwriters and rappers Thea A ...

. It was released in December that year as the fourth and final single from their debut

studio album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

, ''

World Power A great power is a sovereign state that is recognized as having the ability and expertise to exert its influence on a global scale. Great powers characteristically possess military and economic strength, as well as diplomatic and soft power inf ...

'' (1990). The song reached number-one in Zimbabwe and on the ''

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or with the notation min−1) is a unit of rotational speed or rotational frequency for rotating machines. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 defines a unit of rotation as the dimensionl ...

'' Dance/Urban chart in Canada. It's lyrics are based on the nineteenth century

Nursery rhyme A nursery rhyme is a traditional poem or song for children in Britain and many other countries, but usage of the term dates only from the late 18th/early 19th century. The term Mother Goose rhymes is interchangeable with nursery rhymes. From t ...

, ''

Mary Had a Little Lamb "Mary Had a Little Lamb" is an English language nursery rhyme of nineteenth-century American origin, first published by American writer Sarah Josepha Hale in 1830. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 7622. Background The nursery rhyme was fi ...

''. The chorus includes the line "Mary had a little boy, little did she know; and everywhere that Mary went, the little boy was sure to go". The song was re-recorded and included on their 2003 remix album ''The Cult of Snap!'' featuring Milky & 2NF.

Critical reception

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

editor Andrew Hamilton constated that

Penny Ford Penny Ford (also known as Pennye Ford, born June 11, 1964) is an American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio, she rose to fame in the 1980s after signing a recording contract with T ...

's "telling vocal and the story line" on the song make it "the most accessible cut" on the ''

'' album.

Larry Flick Larry Flick is an American journalist, former dance music columnist, single reviewer, and Senior Talent Editor for ''Billboard'' magazine, where he worked for 14 years. Now he produces and hosts Sirius XM radio shows. Flick started in the music ...

from ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' described it as a "fairly appealing

hip-house Hip house, also known as rap house or house rap, is a musical genre that mixes elements of house music and hip hop, that originated in both London, United Kingdom and Chicago, United States in the mid to late 1980s. British group the Beatmast ...

r". Pan-European magazine ''

Music & Media ''Music & Media'' was a pan-European magazine for radio, music and entertainment. It was published for the first time in 1984 as ''Eurotipsheet'', but in 1986 it changed name to ''Music & Media''. It was originally based in Amsterdam, but later ...

'' declared it as an "irresistable, [sic] nervous

dance Dance is a performing art form consisting of sequences of movement, either improvised or purposefully selected. This movement has aesthetic and often symbolic value. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

track based on a wicked, sticking tune." James Hamilton from ''

Music Week ''Music Week'' is a trade publication for the UK record industry distributed via a website and a monthly print magazine. It is published by Future. History Founded in 1959 as '' Record Retailer'', it relaunched on 18 March 1972 as ''Music W ...

'' called it a "nursery rhyme paraphrasing singalong".

Timmy Mallett Timothy Luke Mallett (born 18 October 1955) is an English TV presenter, broadcaster, and artist. He is known for his striking visual style, colourful glasses, loud shirts, and giant pink foam mallet, known as "Mallett's Mallet", as well as his ...

reviewed the song for ''

Smash Hits ''Smash Hits'' was a British music magazine aimed at young adults, originally published by EMAP. It ran from 1978 to 2006, and, after initially appearing monthly, was issued fortnightly during most of that time. The name survived as a brand fo ...

'', commenting, "This is really good." He added, "It's the sort of record I'd dance to, but it does sound as though they're scraping the barrel by doing what is basically a nursery rhyme."

Chart performance

"Mary Had a Little Boy" was successful on the charts on several continents, peaking at number-one in Zimbabwe and on the ''

'' Dance/Urban chart in Canada. In Europe, it peaked within the top 10 in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. In the latter, the single reached number eight in its third week 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 ...

, on December 16, 1990. It spent two weeks at that position. Additionally, it climbed into the top 20 in Italy, reaching number 19. In the US, "Mary Had a Little Boy" charted on the ''

Dance Club Songs Dance Club Songs is a chart published weekly by '' Billboard'' magazine in the United States. It is a national look over of club disc jockeys to determine the most popular songs being played in nightclubs across the country. It was launched as t ...

chart, peaking at number four. In New Zealand and Australia, it went to number 13 and 18.

Music video

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 ...

was released to promote the single. Filmed at Westway Studios in London, it was directed by James Hudson and produced by Nick Verden for Radar Films. The video received

heavy rotation In broadcasting, rotation is the repeated airing of a limited playlist of songs on a radio station or satellite radio channel, or music videos on a TV network. They are usually in a different order each time. However, they are not completely sh ...

MTV Europe MTV Global (formerly as MTV Europe) is the international version of the American TV channel MTV, a 24-hour music and entertainment TV channel that began broadcasting on August 1, 1987, as part of the worldwide MTV network. Initially, MTV serve ...

, and was later published on Snap!'s official

YouTube YouTube is a global online video platform, online video sharing and social media, social media platform headquartered in San Bruno, California. It was launched on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim. It is owned by ...

channel in May 2011. As of December 2022, the music video has amassed more than 6,5 million views.

Track listings

* 7" single (Logic 113 831) #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (Radio Edit) - 3:41 #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (Radio Edit Instrumental) - 3:41 * CD maxi (Logic 663 831) #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (Radio Edit) - 3:41 #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (Club Edit) - 5:56 #"Believe the Hype" (US Edit) - 6:25 * German Remix CD (Logic 613 852 ) #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (12" Mix) - 8:12 #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (Red Zone Mix) - 6:43 #"Mary Had a Little Boy" (7" Radio Edit) - 3:55

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Uses in other Media

Former professional tennis player,

Yannick Noah Yannick Noah (; born 18 May 1960) is a French former professional tennis player and singer. Noah won the French Open in 1983, and is currently the captain of both France's Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup teams. During his nearly two-decade c ...

recorded a single in 1991, called ''

Saga Africa "Saga Africa" (subtitled "Ambiance Secousse" in smaller letters on the single cover) is a song recorded by the former professional tennis player Yannick Noah, released in 1991 as the first Single (music), single from his debut album, ''Black & Wha ...

'' and the song uses a sample of "Mary Had a Little Boy".

References

{{authority control 1990 singles 1990 songs English-language German songs Logic Records singles Number-one singles in Zimbabwe Snap! songs