Mary of the 4th Form

"Mary of the 4th Form"
Single by The Boomtown Rats
from the album The Boomtown Rats
B-side"Do the Rat"
Released11 November 1977[1]
GenrePunk rock, new wave, glam rock
Length3:52 (album version 3:33)
LabelEnsign Records
Songwriter(s)Bob Geldof, Johnnie Fingers
Producer(s)Robert John "Mutt" Lange
The Boomtown Rats singles chronology
"Lookin' After No. 1"
(1977) 		"Mary of the 4th Form"
(1977) 		"She's So Modern"
(1978)

"Mary of the 4th Form" is the second single by The Boomtown Rats. It was the first song taken from the band's first album The Boomtown Rats but the single is a different, re-recorded version from that on the album and 19 seconds longer. On French and Dutch releases of the single, "Do the Rat" (B-side of the UK version) was the A-side.[2] The song's theme, of a teacher's sexual attraction to a pubescent girl, who behaves in an overtly sexual manner, was resonated in the Police song "Don't Stand So Close to Me".[3]

"Mary of the 4th Form" peaked at No. 15 in the UK Singles Chart in 1977.[4]

  1. ^ "Music Week" (PDF). p. 56.
  2. ^ "The Boomtown Rats Discography". Boomtownrats.co.uk. Retrieved 2014-04-09.
  3. ^ "(self-titled) Album Review". The Boomtown Rats. Retrieved 2014-04-09.
  4. ^ Roberts, David (2006). British Hit Singles & Albums (19th ed.). London: Guinness World Records Limited. p. 71. ISBN 1-904994-10-5.