What's Her Name (M - Z)

1. The White Stripes - Now Mary
2. Supergrass - Mary
3. Maxi Priest - Mary's Got A Baby (Neptunes Remix)
4. Jimi Hendrix - The Wind Cries Mary
5. Jethro Tull - Cross Eyed Mary
6. Kings Of Leon - Molly's Chambers
7. Buddy Holly - Peggy Sue
8. Nirvana - Polly
9. AC/DC - Whole Lotta Rosie
10. The Smashing Pumpkins - Thru The Eyes Of Ruby
11. The Everley Brothers - Wake Up Little Susie
12. Skillz - Suzie Q ft. Cee-Lo Green & Pharrell
13. The Zutons - Valerie
14. Bad Boys - Oh Veronica (Beatbox Version)
15. The Glamour Girls - Oh! Veronica
16. The Horrors - Sheena Is A Parasite
17. Weezer - Susanne

Now Mary. It's a popular name, huh? There are a lot of Marys. They're everywhere. Especially in Christian countries. It is a biblical name after all. Obviously, in recent years its popularity has dwindled in accordance with the importance of the religion in people's lives. Currently Mary sits at the 124th spot on the list of most popular girls names, in between Adalynn and Ximena (?!).

I have definitely encountered many a Mary in my time but the only one that comes to mind is the one I met most recently. August 2017 I left London and had a month long stay back in Edinburgh before moving to start a new life in Barcelona. Mary was one of two teachers I had during that stay, as I studied to become an ESL (English as a Foreign Language) teacher. She was great and really did a lot to help me get my certificate. It was an intensive four week course with a lot of work and she was able to keep everyone on the course calm and gave invaluable advice that would help us to become good teachers.

Aside from her I really struggle to think of another Mary with any real significance to me. Mary has been largely forgettable in my life, but she has indelibly left her mark on the history of popular music.

The first 5 tracks on this second disc are about Mary (there is something about her) and there are only 17 tracks in total. As with Betty on the first part, I should have restricted it to just one Mary but I suppose I didn't because it was too difficult a decision. It is a tough call.

The White Blood Cells album track by The White Stripes Now Mary is a typically sweet, blues rock belter from Jack n Meg. The Supergrass single is really good too, from their self-titled third album. It was accompanied by a creepy Hammer Horror homage video that was banned and then shown censored for being 'too scary for TV'. It's fantastically catchy, with a nice organ part running throughout and fun lyrics about a nightmare, green-toothed figure with the name in question.

The Maxi Priest remix is great but appeared and so has been discussed on an earlier mix. The Wind Cries Mary by Jimi is wonderful, of course and Jethro Tull's Cross Eyed Mary, the story of a young prostitute, is a classic rock masterclass.

In all honesty I could have made a separate disc just for Marys. Then I would have opened with Nick Drake's Thoughts of Mary Jane before going to the Creedence orginal of Proud Mary followed by Mother Mary by Rihanna. Mary Had A Baby (Remix) would slot in next. Then I'd have Tom Petty and The Heartbreakers with Mary Jane's Last Dance into Etta James' Tough Mary into Run D.M.C. Mary, Mary. Hail Mary by Tupac and Miss Mary by Slim Thug to keep things hip-hop and then switch it up with Deep Purple's classic rock attack on the hypocrisy of Mary Whitehouse and Lord Longford, Mary Long. Now Mary would fit nicely here. A folky detour would follow beginning with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy's Madeleine-Mary into Neil Diamond's Oh Mary into Glen Campbell - Mary in The Morning into Mary by Sublime. Supergrass, Jethro Tull and Jimi next. And then I would have ended with the Ike and Tina Turner ultimate version of Proud Mary. But I never made that compilation.

For the purposes of this compilation I think I'd have to stick with the White Stripes opener to kick things off and jettison the others before moving on to one of the few Kings Of Leon songs I still like; Molly's Chambers. The title of which is a reference to Thin Lizzy's 1973 version of Irish folk song Whisky In The Jar. I only know one Molly in real life and she is my partner's friend from college. I think they fancy each other at little bit. They're both babes, so fair enough.

Encounters with Peggy Sues count at zero for me currently. The 1957 rock'n'roll Buddy Holly single is marvelous however and I will never tire of encounters with her. I have also no real memory of any Pollys. The one included on this disc is the Nirvana song that lead Bob Dylan to remark of Kurt Cobain 'the kid has heart'. It is based on the true story of a kidnapped 14 year old girl in Washington 1987 who subsequently escaped. It is sung from the perspective of her captor, serial-rapist Gerald Friend, thus a lovely song with incredibly dark subject matter.

Celebrating the 'larger lady', Whole Lotta Rosie is exactly like most AC/DC songs, which is to say brilliant. They really only had one song, like The Ramones, but it is a helluva song. I have definitely had some interactions with girls called Rosie but we were never really very important to each other.

The first Ruby I met was the Chilean friend of my father's whose younger brother Gallo was always very amusing to be around. Ruby is a lovely lady who remains a friend of the family. The most recent Ruby I met, I at the same place as the Mary I discussed earlier. She was another student in Mary's CELTA class. She's a nice girl with a strong wanderlust. The Ruby on this mix is a representation of Billy Corgan's soon to be ex-wife in a song about the end of their marriage, Thru The Eyes Of Ruby. It appears on the second side of The Smashing Pumpkin's magnum opus Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, it contains around 70 guitar tracks and it is fantastic.

Susie/Suzy or Suzanne is the second most popular name on this mix. And has been similarly popular in my life. From girls in my primary school to a teacher I work with today, there have been a number. Pretty much all of them charming in their own way. The one that I think of first when I think of the name is the beautiful ginger one that was a few years above me in school. I had met her in passing in the school corridors but got to know her when it turned out her family were good friends with my best friends family. We always got on really well.  Her, her sister, my best friend and his sister and I all ended up at partying together fairly regularly. Those were fun times. I haven't see her in a few years, but we bump into each other occasionally at family gatherings.

Wake Up Little Suzie by The Everly Brothers is unquestionably classic. A rock n' roll staple that is never not going to get people dancing. Suzie Q by Virginia native Skillz featuring Cee-Lo Green and Pharrell is a great Neptunes rarity. It's tells the story of a female con-artist who takes advantage of gullible men with her great beauty. Skillz explains how he thought he had enough game to take her on but in the end he losing out to her too. The beat is awesome, Cee-Lo kills his feature and Pharrell's ad-libs lift it perfectly. Underrated. 

Susanne plays out over the end credits of Kevin Smith's critically derided, fanboy loved, box office flop of a sophomore feature film Mallrats. This is probably why I decided to put it at the end of the mix, not in keeping with the alphabetical order of the rest of the compilation, it feels like and end credits song. I loved the film despite it's many flaws and the commentary on the Special Edition DVD is worth checking out, it's funnier than the film itself. The song was included as a b-side to the Undone single from Weezers first album. I still adore it and think that it is way too good to have just been a b-side.

In between Suzie Q and Susanne are The Zutons - Valerie, Bad Boys - Veronica, The Glamour Girls - Oh! Veronica and The Horrors - Sheena Is A Parasite. Sheena the track has been covered before and I have never met one in real life. The Veronicas (not the Aussie band) are actually two versions of the same song, a male and female version of a slut-shaming old-school hip-hop number. One version would be enough and the Bad Boys version has an Inspector Gadget sample, so it wins. Simple as that. I don't think I know any real Veronicas.

Unpopular opinion time: The Zutons' original version of Valerie is superior to the much favoured Mark Ronson and Amy Winehouse version. I said it. It's also true. 2 Valeries from my life spring to mind. the first is an old friend of my mother's, she's a lovely posh lady who used to be an air hostess. By some weird coincidence, the other Valerie I know I met on the same day as I met Mary. She was the other teacher I had on my course back in Edinburgh! Like Mary, she is a lovely lady who taught me a lot about teaching. The two of them really set me on my way to a new life and I am thankful for what they did for me.

What's Her Name (M - Z) is not really very good. It feels rushed and not very well thought out. I mean there is no Darling Nikki on there. Wtf?! That would be the first edit I'd make if I was doing it all again. If we're losing 4 Marys and a Veronica then Darling Nikki is instead of one of the Marys. I'd want to also throw The-Dream's Nikki and probably Nikki Part 2 on there as well, but Prince's Nikki is definitive and enough. Lovely Rita would be included, another glaring oversight along with Sara Smile by Hall and Oates. FYI The Essential Hall and Oates will really set of your Sunday morning just right. Just letting you know if you didn't already. The other 2 spaces would probably go to Tina Toledo's Street Walking Blues by Ryan Adams and Tiffany Blews by Fall Out Boy. And thus the mix would be improved massively.

Unfortunately I'm not a songwriter and so the most important women in my life will have to go on without song-title representation on these mixes. If you're reading this, I want to let you know you are appreciated. You know who you are ladies. I love you.