Mayonaise is a song by the Smashing Pumpkins. It was first made available in 1993 on the band’s second studio album Siamese Dream as the ninth track. It is subsequently released as the album’s fifth single on November 20, 2023 through Capitol Records as part of the Siamese Dream 30th Anniversary celebrations and shows. The song was produced by Butch Vig and Billy Corgan. In April 2023, the Netflix series Beef featured the song in the final scene of the final episode “Figures of Light”, sending the song to the #5 position on the Billboard LyricFind Global and US charts.
Written by Corgan and Iha, Mayonaise 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 his refrigerator”. 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.”
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 into a fan booklet as “mayonnaise seas”. The band thought this mondegreen was funny and used “Mayonaise” as a temporary song title when recording Siamese Dream and it eventually stuck.
Tracklist:
- Mayonaise (Studio Version/Siamese Dream)
- Mayonaise (Live Acoustic/Vieuphoria)
The Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan: lead vocals, guitars, bass guitar, production, mixing
James Iha: guitars, backing vocals
D’arcy Wretzky: bass guitar, backing vocals
Jimmy Chamberlin: drums
Technical staff
Butch Vig: production, engineering, mixing
Jeff Tomei: engineering
Tim Holbrook: special technical engineering
Alan Moulder: mixing
Howie Weinberg: mastering
Melodie McDaniel: sleeve photography
Bob Ludwig: mastering (2011 remaster)
