| "Mother Mother" | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Single by Tracy Bonham | ||||
| from the album The Burdens of Being Upright | ||||
| Released | 1996 | |||
| Format | CD single | |||
| Recorded | 1996 | |||
| Genre | Post-grunge | |||
| Length | 3:00 | |||
| Label | Polygram | |||
| Writer(s) | Tracy Bonham | |||
| Producer | Paul Q. Kolderie, Sean Slade | |||
| Tracy Bonham singles chronology | ||||
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"Mother Mother" is a song by Tracy Bonham from her debut album The Burdens of Being Upright. It reached the top of Billboard magazine's Modern Rock Tracks chart (#18 Mainstream Rock Tracks) in mid-1996.[1]
Contents |
The song's lyrics resemble a telephone call by a young woman to her mother. The verses detail her experiences with several mundane aspects of her daily life but then the chorus provides an uglier, darker contrast with Bonham screaming the lyrics, leading up to the climactic lines
"I'm freezing, I'm starving, I'm bleeding to death, everything's fine! I miss you, I love you..."
Two music videos were shot for the song and were used on both MTV and VH-1:
One video, directed by Jake Scott, was shot for MTV featuring an older woman (Bonham's real life mother) turning on the television on which Tracy's image is singing as the woman proceeds to clean the room. The backing band is seen as well playing in an adjoining dining room. The video had a disjointed quality about it and was perfect for the tone of MTV at the time, which was still playing alternative rock at the time.
A second video was shot for more family-friendly VH-1 in which the entire band including Bonham are in a large clothes closet as she sings into a mirror and then quick shots of her are shown playfully trying on different kinds of women's clothes. This version visually alters the message and almost defuses the tone of the song.
In 2005 the song was covered by The Veronicas on their album The Secret Life Of....
| Chart (1996)[2] | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Singles Chart | 5 |
| Dutch Singles Chart | 32 |
| New Zealand Singles Chart | 13 |
| Norwegian Singles Chart | 6 |
| U.S. Billboard Modern Rock Tracks | 1 |
| U.S. Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks | 18 |
| Preceded by "Salvation" by The Cranberries |
Billboard Modern Rock Tracks number-one single June 8, 1996 - June 22, 1996 |
Succeeded by "Counting Blue Cars" by Dishwalla |