"Arms of Mary" is a song written by Iain Sutherland and performed by Sutherland Brothers and Quiver. It was a 1976 international hit single for the band; the Glasgow Herald in its obituary for Iain Sutherland described "Arms of Mary" as "a plaintive and radio-friendly folk-rock ballad in which the narrator reminisces over the woman he first made love to." Original version Iain Sutherland would recall writing "Arms of Mary" at the family farmhouse in the Stoke-on-Trent village of Stockton Brook, adding: "The stuff about 'the lights shine down the valley' [the opening line], I was looking down through Endon basically", citing the village of Endon situated in the Churnet Valley. "Arms of Mary" was introduced on the September 1975 album release Reach for the Sky which marked the debut of the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver on CBS Records: Iain Sutherland would comment: "The main reason we left [previous label] Island [Records] was because they wouldn't distribute singles from our albums in the United States." (In fact the group had reached No. 48 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1973 with the Island release "(I Don't Want to Love You But) You Got Me Anyway"). Subsequent to the unsuccessful lead single release from Reach for the Sky, "Ain't Too Proud", "Arms of Mary" had a spring 1976 single release in both the UK and the US, affording the Sutherland Brothers and Quiver their UK chart debut. A Top of the Pops performance broadcast 8 May 1976 helped boost the track ten notches to No. 6 on the UK Singles Chart dated 15 May 1976 with a No. 5 peak the following week. "Arms of Mary" was also an international success, most notably in Ireland and the Netherlands - in which the track was No. 1 for respectively four and three weeks in those territories - with the track also spending two weeks at No. 1 on the Dutch charts for Belgium. However, "Arms of Mary" did not afford the Sutherland Brothers the American hit in hopes of which they'd moved to CBS Records, as the track failed to accrue enough interest to rise higher than No. 81 on the Billboard Hot 100 in April 1976. Chilliwack version In 1978, Canadian band Chilliwack remade "Arms of Mary" for the group's seventh album release, which was entitled Lights from the Valley after the song's opening lyric. The album's lead single, "Arms of