March is the third month of the year in both the Julian and Gregorian calendars. It is the second of seven months to have a length of 31 days. In the Northern Hemisphere, the meteorological beginning of spring occurs on the first day of March. The March equinox on the 20 or 21 marks the astronomical beginning of spring in the Northern Hemisphere and the beginning of autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, where September is the seasonal equivalent of the Northern Hemisphere’s March. The name of March comes from Martius, the first month of the earliest Roman calendar. It was named after Mars, the Roman god of war, and an ancestor of the Roman people through his sons Romulus and Remus. His month Martius was the beginning of the season for warfare, and the festivals held in his honour during the month were mirrored by others in October, when the season for these activities came to a close. Martius remained the first month of the Roman calendar year perhaps as late as 153 BC. That being said, March is not a popular choice for songwriters as can be seen by the relative lack of well known songs.
“Melancholy March” is a track from the Calendar Girl’s album by Julie London which was released by Liberty Records in 1956. It hits home in all the right ways. Of course there’s Julie London, whose sultry voice makes seasonal ennui sound sexier than it has any right to be. Then there’s the lyrics to “Melancholy March,” which so perfectly capture this month’s awkward middle child syndrome:
Melancholy March without a season
You have no reason or rhyme to be
Melancholy March, meet melancholy me.
“March March” On June 25, 2020, Martie Maguire, Natalie Maines and Emily Strayer renamed themselves The Chicks, dropping the word “Dixie” from their name because of its association with the American South during a time of slavery. Rather than issuing a lengthy statement about the decision, the trio simply released a protest song, “March, March,” crediting it as being by The Chicks. The only explanation was a line on their website: “We want to meet this moment,” a reference to the global Black Lives Matter protests. The Chicks wrote the song after attending the student-led March For Our Lives demonstration in support of legislation to prevent gun violence. The event took place in Washington, DC, on March 24, 2018, a month after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting. Stayer explained to Music Week magazine: “We were talking about that in the session, and that’s where the march idea came up… But we didn’t want to write three verses all about gun control, so we started talking about other things we were passionate about.”
“The Waters of March” (Águas de Março), written in 1972 by acclaimed Brazilian composer and father of bossa nova Antonio Carlos Jobim, was named the best Brazilian song ever composed in a poll of over 200 journalists from the country in 2001. The swirling, downward motion of the melody reflects the falling rain common in Brazil in March. American jazz vocalist Susannah McCorkle covered the tune for her 1993 album From Bessie to Brazil, which peaked at #20 on the Billboard jazz chart.
“The Ides of March” is a 2005 song from ‘Discovering the Waterfront’ second studio album by Canadian post-hardcore band Silverstein. The album was promoted with three music videos for the tracks “Smile in Your Sleep”, “Discovering the Waterfront”, and “My Heroine”. This song makes a handful of references to the play Julius Caeser so i would say this song is mostly about revenge and guilt. He regrets what he did and for that he will never see things the same again and he is everyday haunted by the soul that he betrayed.
“March Madness” is a song recorded by American rapper Future. It was released in August 2015, as the lead single of his mixtape 56 Nights (2015). The song was certified Platinum by ther RIAA in May 2017, for selling over 1,000,000 digital copies in the United States. The song is ranked as one of the 100 songs that defined the 2010’s decade by Billboard. A music video for the track premiered in March 2015. It was directed by Vincent Lou.
As a slight indulgence I am including a favourite by the band ‘Ides of March’. The Ides of March began in Berwyn, Illinois (a near western suburb of Chicago), in October 1964, as a four-piece band called “The Shon-Dels”. Their first record, “Like It or Lump It”, was released on their own “Epitome” record label in 1965. In 1966, after changing their name to The Ides of March (a name suggested by bassist Bob Bergland after reading Julius Caesar in high school), the band released their first single on Parrot. Having secured a recording contract with Warner Bros in 1970 the band released the track “Vehicle”, which allegedly became the fastest-selling single in Warner’s history. Fourteen seconds of the completed “Vehicle” master tape (primarily the guitar solo) were accidentally erased in the recording studio. The missing section was spliced in from a previously discarded take. The song reached No. 2 on the Billboard and No. 6 on the corresponding Cash Box listings. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc in November 1972.
