"Mama" is the first single from Genesis' 1983 self-titled album. It is recognisable for its harsh drum machine introduction composed by Mike Rutherford, which leads into minimalist synthesizer lines in a minor tonality and finally Phil Collins' reverb-laden voice. It remains the band's most successful single in the UK, peaking at No. 4 on the UK Singles Chart. It also made the top 10 in Switzerland, Austria, Norway, Ireland and the Netherlands. It was less popular in the US, only reaching No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100. A 1992 re-release of the single managed to reach the Top 40 in Germany. Former Genesis member Steve Hackett in interviews said "Mama" was his favourite song from the band after his departure, calling it "beautifully haunting". The song resurfaced in 2007 as part of the, albeit transposed down a whole tone to account for the deepening of Phil Collins' voice.
Theme
The song's theme involves a young man's longing for a particular prostitute. On the DVD The Genesis Songbook, the band and producer Hugh Padgham revealed that the inspiration for Collins' laugh came from rap music pioneer Grandmaster Flash's song "The Message". From the 1983 Genesis Three into One Wavelength 3-LP vinyl radio show interview:
Recording
The Linn LM-1 rhythm was programmed by Mike Rutherford, rather than drummer Collins. It was fed through a reverb unit and then into a Fender amplifier with a large amount of distortion. Tony Banks used a Synclavier, ARP Quadra, E-mu Emulator, and Sequential Circuits Prophet-10 in the recording. The Quadra's rhythmic pulses were triggered by the 16th note hi-hat pattern coming from the Linn drum machine. A low E drone was recorded on the Prophet-10 through most of the song. A koto, which happened to be in the studio one day, was sampled into the Emulator and used in the song because it was felt that no other sound worked in the section.
Music video
The music video for the song plays out the lyrics, showing Collins singing to a mysterious woman while Banks and Rutherford play in the background. One sequence involves Collins, cloaked in shadows and illuminated by a red light. The video is shot in a sepia tone until 2 minutes 40 seconds into the video when colour fades in. When performed live, white lights were shone from underneath the stage to recreate this sequence.
Versions and live performances
There are at least four versions of the studio recording of "Mama": the original, full-length cut ; a somewhat early-faded version ; an edited version ; and a heavily edited version. An extremely rare 3:30 and heavy edited version was released on a 1983 Italian promo 7-inch. This remains the shortest edited version of the song. A 10:43 rehearsal take, dating from 1983 and referred to as a "work in progress", is included at the end of the third disc of '. This demonstrated how Genesis would try out new songs; the band would play while Phil Collins would just sing anything that came to mind, normally without actual words. The song was played live during the Mama, Invisible Touch, We Can't Dance, Calling All Stations, and tours. A live version appears on their albums ' and Live Over Europe 2007, and their DVDs Genesis Live at Wembley Stadium and When in Rome 2007. The song also appears on the 1985 home video release The Mama Tour.
"Mama" was covered by the band Magellan on the 1996 Genesis tribute albumSupper's Ready. The song was also covered by the French extreme metal band Carnival in Coal and released on their album French Cancan. Brazilian power metal band Angra covered the song on their EP Hunters and Prey. "Mama" was covered by the Finnish heavy metal band Tarot as the second track on the single for "Undead Son", the only single release from their 2003 album Suffer Our Pleasures.
