Released November 10, 1997 Recorded 1996 Length 4:38 | Format 7"
CD
cassette Genre Heavy metal | |
B-side "Fuel for Fire"
"Memory"
"The Outlaw Torn"
"King Nothing"
"For Whom the Bell Tolls" (Haven't Heard it Yet Mix) | ||
"The Memory Remains" is a song by American heavy metal band Metallica, with British singer and songwriter Marianne Faithfull singing backup. It was the lead single from their seventh studio album, ReLoad, released in 1997. It was first performed live in a "jam" version on July 2, 1996. Faithfull was brought in as James Hetfield felt her "weathered, smellin'-the-cigarettes-on-the-CD voice" fit what he described as "the whole eeriness of the Sunset Boulevard-feel of the song", given the lyrics tell the story of a faded artist who goes insane from losing her fame. The spoken words "Say yes, at least say hello" during the outro, are a reference to The Misfits, which is the last movie Marilyn Monroe starred in.
Contents
The song was written by James Hetfield and Lars Ulrich. Part of the intro riff is similar to Black Sabbath's song "Sabbath Bloody Sabbath". It can be heard playing in the strip club Bada Bing! in the episode of The Sopranos, "The Knight in White Satin Armor".
Demo
The song's demo was also called "Memory" and was recorded in Lars Ulrich's home musical studio "Dungeon" on March 6, 1995 (take 1) and March 17, 1995 (take 2).
Other versions
The band, with Marianne Faithfull, performed the song on the December 6, 1997 edition of Saturday Night Live. A live version of the song was released as B-side to the single "The Unforgiven II". It was later performed with the San Francisco Symphony (conducted by Michael Kamen) on S&M. Another live version was included on Orgullo, Pasión y Gloria. According to a post on Metallica's Facebook wall, they performed the song again with Marianne Faithfull on December 7, 2011, at the Fillmore in San Francisco.
Covers
Several bands have covered the song (either live or on record), including The Kovenant, Spleen, Iron Horse and The Stanford Harmonics.
Chart performance
The single was successful, hitting number 28 on the Billboard Hot 100, number 3 on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart and number 13 on the UK Singles Chart. It was Metallica's last appearance in the top 40 of the Billboard Hot 100 until 2008's "The Day That Never Comes". The song was Faithfull's first Top 40 single on the Hot 100 since 1965's "Summer Nights", and her last to date.
Music video
The "Memory Remains" music video (directed by Paul Andersen) features a surreal, anti-gravity concept. The band plays on a large, suspended platform making full and continuous rotations throughout the performance, like an enormous swing. The platform and band are actually stationary and the room, a giant constructed box, spins around it. Marianne Faithfull sings in a dark corridor and turns the crank of a street organ, the crank presumably attached to the rotating platform upon which the band plays. In some scenes money rains down, an allegorical reference.
According to Encyclopedia Metallica, the video was shot at the Van Nuys Airport and cost $400,000, with the large platform costing over $100,000. The video premiered on MTV's Mattrock on November 15, 1997.