Mayonaise: The Inside Joke That Became One of The Smashing Pumpkins Best Songs
“Mayonaise” started as an instrumental from The Smashing Pumpkins guitarist James Iha, but it takes its name from an inside joke stemming from a mondegreen lost in translation during their 1992 tour of Japan. This is the story of one of the BEST songs in The Smashing Pumpkins’ extensive catalog.
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✉️ Read the transcript & hear the music on the Poetic Wax Substack: https://poeticwax.substack.com
Thumbnail photo by Gilbert Blecken.
WATCH NEXT:
✓ How “Today” Saved Billy Corgan’s Life: https://youtu.be/sHrImJFDuYM
✓ The Story of “ZERO” by The Smashing Pumpkins: https://youtu.be/tcBu05dvLPg
✓ The Bold Album Launch of Mellon Collie (and How it Almost Failed): https://youtu.be/5s7f3jIgdwo
🎥 The Smashing Pumpkins on Poetic Wax: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLylroYWVYWWW9lI-SrU4IgSctCqMEOMdx
Get Siamese Dream on Vinyl 🎧
Poetic Wax is hosted by Andy Fenstermaker.
CHAPTERS:
0:00 The Story of “Mayonaise” by The Smashing Pumpkins
1:15 WTF Is A Mondegreen?
2:09 How a Mistranslation Ignited a Masterpiece
4:37 The Turbulent Road to Siamese Dream
8:00 From Broken Guitars to Sonic Alchemy
10:55 The Release of Siamese Dream
11:58 Lyrics That Echo Billy Corgan’s Personal Struggles
13:29 The Enduring Legacy of “Mayonaise”
SELECT REFERENCES & CLIPS:
Why Billy Corgan Went Out Of His Mind Making Siamese Dream: https://ultimateclassicrock.com/billy-corgan-smashing-pumpkins-siamese-dream/
https://tapeop.com/interviews/115/smashing-pumpkins-a-studio-history
https://forums.netphoria.org/showthread.php?p=4146482
Billy Corgan Interviewed by Tom Dunne (Dublin, Ireland 1998) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ3hX8ARmwE
The Smashing Pumpkins Live on Japanese TV 1992
The Smashing Pumpkins in 1992 (Pictures by Gilbert Blecken) https://gilbertblecken.wordpress.com/the-smashing-pumpkins/
Billy Corgan Planned His Own Death During Siamese Dream Sessions: https://wgrd.com/billy-corgan-was-suicidal-while-recording-siamese-dream/
The Smashing Pumpkins Perform “Mayonaise” (Chicago Metro, 1993): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7-30i1f5e0
Billy Explains the Guitar Whistle on Mayonaise: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HxUgOgyK96A
Billy Corgan Explains the Real Story of The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Mayonaise” https://www.youtube.com/shorts/xXn-djVW2K4
#vinylcommunity #vinylrecords #vinylcollection #andyfenstermaker #albumstory #albumhistory #albumdocumentary #musicstory #musichistory #musicdocumentary #behindthealbum #behindthemusic #poeticwax #thesmashingpumpkins #siamesedream #mayonaise #smashingpumpkinstoday #billycorgan #jamesiha #jimmychamberlin #darcywretzky
@AndyFenstermaker
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
In the next video, I dig into the story behind "Today" and how it very well might have saved Billy Corgan's life 👉 https://youtu.be/sHrImJFDuYM
@jcs6206
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
my wrong lyrics are sometimes better than the actual lyrics. A prime example is Thunderstruck from ACDC. The actual lyrics are pretty stupid compared to what I thought it was for 15+ years. Damn near ruined the song for me, finding out the actual words.
@JohnQPublic345
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
I went to the same HS as James iha
@jac90620
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
How come nobody talks about Zwan? I thought that side project was pretty insanely good. Saw them live and just as pivotol as the Pumpkins live.
@K33f11
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
thirty three and here is no why
@heckjj
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Soma. The part where the guitar solo keeps going as the vocals come back in might be the best moment in recorded music.
@spoonysmalls
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Never believed the tale that control freak ocd tone master Billy Corgan was just playing a cheap guitar and couldnt get it to stop squeeling. It was bought for that purpose. Dude had a vision and understood the times, crafted a mythos. But that story is bull.
@exolardusk1352
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Snail! Gish love!
@johnpower9550
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Shout out to Tom Dunne (2:10) who threw me off stage in Joe O'Shea's 1992 after I had taken his microphone. Great singer for Ireland's answer to R.E.M, Something Happens. Debut album, Been there, Seen that, Done that is a lovely little thing indeed.
@quantum_stride
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Billy Corgan has a long history of giving contradictory or "troll" answers in interviews, which is likely why the "fridge" story lasted so long. He only began confirming the Japanese mistranslation as the "true" origin relatively recently, specifically around the Gish-aversary in 2021 and in a 2022 podcast.
It feels like nonsense because for decades he pushed the refrigerator line or the "my own eyes" pun as a joke to see what fans would believe. The Japanese story—where a booklet turned the Rhinoceros lyric "mustard lies" into "mayonnaise seas"—is now his official record, but with Billy, the "truth" often shifts depending on the decade.
@MsSpeaker1
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Snail
@Cryptomonkas
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Hummer
@chrisvandergoes2787
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Best? Thru the eyes of Ruby… It's a journey! (MCIS)
@chrisvandergoes2787
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Mondegreen!! GREAT weekend in Dover DE in the summer of 2024. IYKYK
@HellOnWheel
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
4:59 🩹
@foxfire204
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
For me Stand Inside Your Love has a very special meaning, always hits hard
@richardjames1946
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Favorite song great song 👽 love the whistle guitar bit
@PatrickTK21
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Best Song on Siamese Dream?
Boomers: "Disarm"
Gen-X: "Soma"
Millennials: "Hummer"
Gen-Z: "Mayonaise"
@BlakeBlackstone
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
idk, man. I think it's a very mid song in their library. It's very boring and uninspired-sounding. Definitely a skip track for me.
@TYETHEG83
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Hummer, Here's To The Atom Bomb, Mouth of Babes, and Nothing and Everything. My favorites.
@scottbarnard7459
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
I was lucky enough to get into the Siamese Dream record release party at Tower Records on Clark Street in Chicago where the band played a few songs from the album (don't think they did Mayonaise though – that was many beers ago!). Still have my signed CD kicking around 🙂
@Heinz-uf2kp
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Billy probably doesn't want you to know this ,but he took LSD
@MrJeremyville
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
‘Daydream’ off Gish. D’arcy’s voice brings such haunting poignancy to it
@raffaeljosefmarcellinoputr9355
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Appreciate your research dude🤟🏿
@Phedrus4Quality
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
You crushed it, brother. You have a great delivery style.
@music-hater
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Wait ‘til you hear My Bloody Valentine’s “Sue is Fine”
@drumrollwithjoel
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Mayonaise hits me the hardest, but a close second is Try, Try, Try because of its sentimentality. Billy's a dick, but he knows people and the human condition
@tshatos6442
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Poor billy can’t grow his hair long anymore and dye it red.
@MagikMonkey1423
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Dude, the fact that you have "SOUP" by BLIND MELON on vinyl absolutely gets a sub from me. I think that's one of the top 3 greatest albums of all time.
@LucasKuczek-f3e
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
1 min in. Subscribed. Was enough for me to see : no AI, infectious love for greatness in music.
@michaelhopper2199
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Good job nice content
@michaelmercado5065
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Spaceboy & Mayonaise, it was a 1993 love crsuch.
@lovelyweeburd
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Moray in Scotland is pronounced 'Murray'.
@madsplattalot8712
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Who cares..mayonnaise is gross
@hotel1271
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Mayonaise is top tier but I have to give an edge to Stand Inside Your Love as my favorite Pumpkins song
@Forest_Specter
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
It's smashing pumpkins fault i mis-spell mayonaise to this day.
@davieduckett
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
I cant listen to anything they made in the last 20 years. But Siamese Dream is a top 10 all time album
@jworthe
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
I remember a guy telling me his favorite song was Mayonaise around 1995. It blew my mind because I had such love for that song, thinking it was something very unique to me. Remember, Mayonaise didn't get any radio air time. Little did I know that this song resonated with so, so many others. Here we are still talking about it over 30 years later.
@Mr-Dunning-Kruger-x9c
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Great summary!
But, I think the best commentary was added by your executive producer, starting around 10:55
🙂
@EpicSkater321
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Amazing video
@lucristianx
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Mayonaise seas, mustard lies
@robertcunningham2777
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
For Martha is the song that speaks to my heart the most.
@SkinnyEatWorld95
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Tyberos❤
@LastBastian
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Love the Pumpkins, but I have to be honest, those grating high pitched distortion squeels in Mayonaise always kind of killed the song for me.
@lennykai1298
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
1:44 Why he look like you tho?? shit be suss af…
@scrambler350
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Mayonaise and Soma are my favorites off of Siamese Dream, but 'In the Arms of Sleep' always hit the hardest when I was young and first hearing the record – perfectly fit my teenage longing and loneliness – always there for me when no one else was.
@craigmcconomy9346
February 5, 2026 at 6:02 pm
Starla, no question
Comments are closed.