"O Superman", also known as "O Superman (For Massenet)", is a 1981 song by performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson. The song became a surprise hit in the United Kingdom after it was championed by DJ John Peel, rising to #2 on the UK Singles Charts in 1981. Prior to the success of this song, Anderson was little known outside the art world. First released as a single, the song also appeared on her debut album Big Science (1982) and as part of her live album United States Live (1984). The song topped the 1981 The Village Voice Pazz & Jop singles poll. Structure In writing the song, Anderson drew from the aria "Ô Souverain, ô juge, ô père" ("O Sovereign, O Judge, O Father") from Jules Massenet's 1885 opera Le Cid. She got the idea after seeing the aria performed in concert by American tenor Charles Holland. The first lines ("O Superman / O Judge / O Mom and Dad") especially echo the original aria ("Ô Souverain / ô juge / ô père"). Susan McClary suggests in her book Feminine Endings that Anderson is also recalling another work by Massenet, his 1902 opera Le jongleur de Notre-Dame. The opera is one in which the arms of the mother—the Virgin Mary—embrace/bless the dying Rodrigo. Overlaid on a sparse background of two alternating chords formed by the repeated spoken syllable "Ha" created by looping with an Eventide Harmonizer, and a vocoder was used for a Greek chorus effect. A saxophone is heard as the song fades out, and a sample of tweeting birds is subtly overlaid at various points within the track. The two chords of the song are A major and C minor, the repeating "Ha" syllable (a C note) acting as a drone. The song's introduction consists of a repetition of the "O Superman / O Judge / O Mom and Dad" stanza. The rest of the song's lyrics are loosely structured around a phone conversation between the narrator and a mysterious voice. At first, the voice leaves a message claiming to be the narrator's mother but, upon not receiving a response, reveals itself as someone whom the narrator "doesn't know" but who "knows" the narrator. The narrator finally responds, asking "who is this really?" The voice then identifies itself as "the hand that takes" and informs the narrator that the "American planes" are coming. The song concludes with