Ab minor · Camelot 1A · 144 BPM
Mama Said
by The Shirelles
- 144
- BPM
- Ab minor
- Key
- 1A
- Camelot
- 61
- Danceability
- 71
- Acousticness
Luther Dixon and Willie Denson wrote "Mama Said," giving the Shirelles a song built around a mother's advice about the hardships of growing up. The group recorded it for Scepter Records, and the single arrived in 1961, a period when the Shirelles were among the leading girl groups in American pop.
The record performed strongly on both sides of the chart divide. It climbed to number four on the Billboard Hot 100 and reached number two on the R&B chart, making it a top-ten hit in each field. In Canada, a version by Little Eva appeared nearly a decade later, reaching number 96 there in 1970.
Other artists took to the song as well. Dusty Springfield, Melanie, American Spring, the Stereos, and the Growlers all recorded versions, and Nick Lowe included a cover on his 2001 album The Convivor. Van Morrison drew on it as inspiration for "Days Like This," and a young Dionne Bromfield also recorded it. The song later found new audiences through television, closing an episode of Orange is the New Black's third season and appearing in the seventh season of Adventure Time in an episode that shared its title. Billboard placed it at number 44 on its list of the 100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time.
Mama Said runs at 144 BPM, the tempo of dubstep and trap counted in half time, and hardstyle. In classical terms it sits in allegro territory. A bar of 4/4 lasts 1.67 seconds, and a quarter-note delay is 417 ms. It is in Ab minor, Camelot 1A, which shares its notes with B major and mixes cleanly with C# minor and Eb minor.
We use multiple sources as part of our online research for the song story including Wikipedia.