"Merry Go 'Round" is the debut single by American

country music Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, o ...

artist

Kacey Musgraves Kacey Lee Musgraves (born August 21, 1988) is an American country singer. She has won six Grammy Awards, seven Country Music Association Awards, and three Academy of Country Music Awards. Musgraves self-released three solo albums and one as Tex ...

. It was released in September 2012 as the lead single from her debut album ''

Same Trailer Different Park ''Same Trailer Different Park'' is the debut studio album by American country music artist Kacey Musgraves, released on March 19, 2013, through Mercury Nashville. Musgraves co-wrote all 12 tracks and co-produced the album with Luke Laird and ...

''. Musgraves co-wrote and co-produced the song with

Shane McAnally Shane McAnally (born October 12, 1974) is an American country music singer, songwriter, and record producer. Originally a solo artist for Curb Records in 1999, McAnally charted three singles on Hot Country Songs, including the No. 31 "Are Y ...

, with additional writing from

Josh Osborne Josh Osborne (born c. 1980) is an American songwriter with several number-one singles to his credit. Early life Josh Osborne was born in Pike County, Kentucky, and raised in Virgie, Kentucky. Osborne grew up on US 23, renamed Country Music Hig ...

and production assistance from

Luke Laird Luke Robert Laird (born May 4, 1978 in Hartstown, Pennsylvania) is an American country music songwriter and producer. He has written over 20 number one '' Billboard'' singles, including Carrie Underwood's " So Small", " Temporary Home", and " ...

. "Merry Go 'Round" won the

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pre ...

for Best Country Song at the

56th Grammy Awards The 56th Annual Grammy Awards presentation was held on January 26, 2014, at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The show was broadcast on CBS at 8 p.m. ET/PT and was hosted for the third time by LL Cool J. The show was moved to January to avoid comp ...

Content

The song is a cynical observation on life in the American heartland. It uses samples of the nursery rhyme

Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary "Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary" is an English nursery rhyme. The rhyme has been seen as having religious and historical significance, but its origins and meaning are disputed. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 19626. Lyrics The most common m ...

as a continued play-on-words. The latter part of the song retells another traditional nursery rhyme, Jack and Jill, in a modernized fashion. It is in the key of

F-sharp major F-sharp major (or the key of F) is a major scale based on F, consisting of the pitches F, G, A, B, C, D, and E. Its key signature has six sharps. The F-sharp major scale is: : Its relative minor is D-sharp minor (or enharmonically E-f ...

, in a 2/2

time signature The time signature (also known as meter signature, metre signature, or measure signature) is a notational convention used in Western culture, Western musical notation to specify how many beat (music), beats (pulses) are contained in each measu ...

with an approximate tempo of 88

beats per minute Beat, beats or beating may refer to: Common uses * Patrol, or beat, a group of personnel assigned to monitor a specific area ** Beat (police), the territory that a police officer patrols ** Gay beat, an area frequented by gay men * Battery ( ...

. The song's main accompaniment is guitar and banjo. The song's plays on words in the chorus are only made possible by the

General American General American English or General American (abbreviated GA or GenAm) is the umbrella accent of American English spoken by a majority of Americans. In the United States it is often perceived as lacking any distinctly regional, ethnic, or soc ...

merger of ''Mary'', ''marry'' and ''merry''.

Critical reception

Giving it 4.5 stars out of 5, Billy Dukes of Taste of Country compared the song's style and Musgraves' voice favorably to

Miranda Lambert Miranda Leigh Lambert (born November 10, 1983) is an American country singer and guitarist. Born in Longview, Texas, she started out in early 2001 when she released her self-titled debut album independently. In 2003, she finished in third place o ...

. It received a "thumbs up" from Juli Thanki of Engine 145, who said that Musgraves "writes with a maturity beyond her 24 years, delivering an unflinching look into small-town life that’s more nuanced than the highly romanticized rural anthems offered up by many of her male counterparts." It also made "

NPR Music NPR Music is a project of National Public Radio, an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization, that launched in November 2007 to present public radio music programming and original editorial content for music ...

's 100 Favorite Songs of 2012" list. It was number 1 on ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

s "10 Best Country Singles of 2013" list.

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner, and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. It was first known for its co ...

named it the 49th best single of 2012. It was also ranked number 362 in the 2021 revision of

Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" is a recurring survey compiled by the American magazine ''Rolling Stone''. It is based on weighted votes from selected musicians, critics, and industry figures. The first list was published in December 2004 in ...

Music video

Directed by Perry Bean, the music video premiered in September 2012.

Commercial performance

"Merry Go 'Round" peaked at No. 14 on the Hot Country Songs chart. The song reached the top 10 of the ''

Country Airplay Country Airplay is a chart published weekly by ''Billboard'' magazine in the United States since January 20, 1990. This chart lists the 60 most-listened-to records played on 150 mainstream country radio stations across the country as monitored ...

chart. The song has sold 825,000 copies in the US as of February 2014.

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

References

External links

* {{authority control 2012 debut singles 2012 songs Country ballads 2010s ballads Kacey Musgraves songs Songs written by Shane McAnally Songs written by Kacey Musgraves Songs written by Josh Osborne Song recordings produced by Luke Laird Song recordings produced by Shane McAnally Mercury Nashville singles