"Psycho" is a song by Irish rockabilly

Rockabilly

Rockabilly is one of the earliest styles of rock and roll music, dating to the early 1950s.The term rockabilly is a portmanteau of rock and hillbilly, the latter a reference to the country music that contributed strongly to the style's development...

 singer Imelda May

Imelda May

Imelda Mary Higham, Clabby , known as Imelda May, is an Irish vocalist and musician. She began her career in music at 15 and released her debut album in 2005. She also plays the bodhrán and guitar...

. Written solely by May, the song was released as her third single on June 28, 2010 and the lead single from her third studio album, Mayhem

Mayhem (Imelda May album)

Mayhem is the third studio album by Irish rockabilly singer Imelda May, released on 3 September 2010 in Ireland and on 4 October 2010 in the United Kingdom.-Background:...

. The single was May's first release on her new record label, Decca

Decca Records

Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....

.

Origin and recording

The song was written after the release of May's second studio album, Love Tattoo

Love Tattoo

Love Tattoo is the second album by Irish singer Imelda May. "Johnny Got A Boom-Boom" and "Big Bad Handsome Man" were released as singles. The album reached number 1 in the Official Irish Top 100 Album Chart.-Track listing:...

, which she was promoting on tour at the time of writing. The song was recorded during the Mayhem sessions at Embassy Studios, a sixteen track analogue recording studio in a coverted cow shed, near Basingstoke

Basingstoke

Basingstoke is a town in northeast Hampshire, in south central England. It lies across a valley at the source of the River Loddon. It is southwest of London, northeast of Southampton, southwest of Reading and northeast of the county town, Winchester. In 2008 it had an estimated population of...

, United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

. A remastered version of the song was released as a bonus track on the iTunes

ITunes

iTunes is a media player computer program, used for playing, downloading, and organizing digital music and video files on desktop computers. It can also manage contents on iPod, iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad....

 version of Mayhem.

Release and promotion

"Psycho" was announced for release in May 2010 at which time the recording and production was completed. In the official press release by Decca Records, it was noted that "'Psycho' sees Imelda displaying some of her more disparate influences, as if PJ Harvey

PJ Harvey

Polly Jean Harvey is an English musician, singer-songwriter, composer and occasional artist. Primarily known as a vocalist and guitarist, she is also proficient with a wide range of instruments including piano, organ, bass, saxophone, and most recently, the autoharp.Harvey began her career in...

's "Sheela Na Gig" had been recorded in the Ace cafe in North London in front of a load of rockers."

May's following tour of the United States with Jeff Beck

Jeff Beck

Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...

 promoted the song abroad and in Ireland and the United Kingdom, the song was performed on The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show

The Late Late Show, sometimes referred to as The Late Late, or in some cases by the acronym LLS, is the world's longest-running chat show by the same broadcaster and the official flagship television programme of Irish broadcasting company RTÉ...

on September 10 and Later... with Jools Holland on October 12, respectively.

Though well-promoted in comparison to her previous singles, the single failed chart in neither Ireland nor the United Kingdom.

Music video

Filmed on a higher budget than her only previous music video, "Johnny Got a Boom Boom", the promotional music video for "Psycho" is aptly set in a mental institution and features May as a nurse delivering patients with medication. The video also features The Imelda May Band performing in a solitary confiment room.

Musicians and personnel

The Imelda May Band

• Imelda May
  Imelda May
  Imelda Mary Higham, Clabby , known as Imelda May, is an Irish vocalist and musician. She began her career in music at 15 and released her debut album in 2005. She also plays the bodhrán and guitar...
  
   - vocals
  Singing
  Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of both tonality and rhythm. One who sings is called a singer or vocalist. Singers perform music known as songs that can be sung either with or without accompaniment by musical instruments...
  
  , bodhrán
  Bodhrán
  The bodhrán is an Irish frame drum ranging from 25 to 65 cm in diameter, with most drums measuring 35 to 45 cm . The sides of the drum are 9 to 20 cm deep. A goatskin head is tacked to one side...
  
  
• Darrel Higham
  Darrel Higham
  Darrel Higham is an English rockabilly guitarist.-Career:Higham started playing lead guitar with British rockabilly bands in the late 1980s. By the mid-1990s, he had created the band that would become his main gigging and recording project: Darrel Higham & The Enforcers...
  
   - guitar
  Guitar
  The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
  
  s
• Al Gare - bass
  Bass guitar
  The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
  
  , double bass
  Double bass
  The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
  
  
• Stevew Rushton - drums
  Drum kit
  A drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
  
  , percussion
• Dave Priseman - trumpet
  Trumpet
  The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
  
  , flugel
  Flügel
  Flügel may refer to:*The Harpsichord in the 18th and early 19th centuries*The Grand Pianoforte in the late 19th century *The flugelhorn*The "wing" or tenor joint of the Bassoon*The following persons:...
  
  , percussion

Technical personnel

• Imelda May - producer, mixing
  Audio mixing (recorded music)
  In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
  
  
• Andy Wright - producer, mixing
• Gavin Goldberg - producer, mixing
• Graham Dominy - engineer
• Darrel Highham - mixing
• Guy Davie - mastering

Track listing

All songs written by Imelda May

Imelda May

Imelda Mary Higham, Clabby , known as Imelda May, is an Irish vocalist and musician. She began her career in music at 15 and released her debut album in 2005. She also plays the bodhrán and guitar...

.

Digital download

1. "Psycho" - 2:54
2. "My Baby Left Me" - 2:57
3. "Sneaky Freak" - 3:10
4. "Psycho" (video) - 2:44

Limited edition 7" vinyl

1. "Psycho" - 2:54
2. "My Baby Left Me" - 2:57