"Vow" is a song by alternative rock band Garbage. It was released as their debut single in early 1995 by Discordant, a label set up by Mushroom Records to launch the group, and Almo Sounds in North America.
"Vow" was quietly licensed to a Volume magazine/CD sampler publication at the end of 1994; it was subsequently picked up and broadcast by BBC Radio 1 DJs Steve Lamacq and John Peel, and then playlisted by modern rock radio stations in Los Angeles and Seattle. "Vow" generated such significant buzz through positive reviews and word-of-mouth that it was eventually chosen as Garbage's first single release. After a low-key independent record label pressing in the United Kingdom, where it was packaged in a very limited edition logo embossed aluminium case, "Vow" went on to top the alternative charts in Australia and register on the Hot 100 singles chart in the United States.
The song began as a demo during sessions between band members Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker, and the composition finished after singer Shirley Manson joined the band. The lyrics for "Vow" deal with themes of revenge and retaliation, and were inspired by a newspaper article on domestic abuse. In 2007, "Vow" was remastered and included as the opening track on Garbage's greatest hits compilation, Absolute Garbage. The song was also included in Garbage's second greatest hits compilation The Absolute Collection, released in Australia and New Zealand in 2012, and was remastered again in 2022 to be included on the CD and streaming edition of the band's third greatest hits collection Anthology.
Development and composition
"Vow" began in rough demo form in January 1994, as band members Butch Vig, Duke Erikson and Steve Marker performed sessions in Marker's basement recording studio and Vig and Marker's own Smart Studios business in Madison, Wisconsin. After Marker saw Shirley Manson's group Angelfish on 120 Minutes, the band invited Manson to Smart Studios to sing on a couple of tracks. After a dreadful first audition, she returned to Angelfish, which folded shortly thereafter. Manson decided to test for Garbage again, and after the successful second audition, she began to work on the then-skeletal "Queer" and "Vow". While performing "Vow", Manson ad-libbed the lyrics "I can't use what I can't abuse" and "like Joan of Arc coming back for more". The song is written in the key of A minor, set in time signature of common time with a tempo of 126 beats per minute. and has a chord progression is A–C-F in the verses, D-B♭-A-Em-D-B♭-F in the bridge, and F-C-D-G in the chorus, with a segue into F♯ minor in the interlude.