Mama - 2007 Remaster

This song is about a young man obsessed with a prostitute who is not interested in him. He has an Oedipal fixation on her, and insists on calling her "Mama." It is based on a book Phil Collins read called The Moon's A Balloon, by David Niven. In the book, a young man falls in love with an older prostitute who does not return his affections.

After their 1980 album Duke, Genesis changed the way they wrote songs. Instead of the individual members bringing in musical bits and song ideas to work on, the band would show up in the studio and come up with ideas collectively. According to Phil Collins, it was Mike Rutherford who came up with this song after getting the idea from his drum machine. Their keyboard player Tony Banks added some chords, and Collins began improvising lyrics while they listened to playbacks, at one point uttering the word "Mama," which became the title for the song. In a press conference following the release of the album, Collins said that when they wrote the song, it "had a lot of steam, a lot of heat," and they pictured Cuban brothels. The band didn't think much of the song when they wrote it, and were surprised when it caught on.

The chorus consists of maniacal laughter performed by Phil Collins. When questioned about getting into the sinister mood to perform the song, Collins said that it wasn't a problem. After all, he was an accomplished actor long before he joined Genesis.