Songfacts®:

• Mark Morrison wrote this uplifting club banger, which was a huge hit in the summer of 1997. Morrison said in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "When I wrote that song, it was all about my moving from the negative to the positive. And that's how it turned out. Within the space of a year, I went from the lowest point of my life to return as The Mack and move forward to what's become the highest point of my life."
• This uses a sample of a Kool & The Gang instrumental called "N.T."
• Morrison decided to become a singer after spending three months in jail in 1995 for his part in a nightclub disturbance. In 1997 he was given a community service order for attempting to take a stun-gun onto a plane. When it was discovered Morrison was paying somebody else to complete his order on his behalf he was sentenced to a year in jail.
• With a big, ear-catching chorus, "Return Of The Mack" became a comeback anthem, but in the verse lyrics, Morrison sings from the perspective of a guy who got his groove back after his girl betrayed him.
• When this song topped the British chart, Morrison became the first Black male solo artist to reach #1 in the UK in the '90s.
• Director Jake Nava (who helmed Adele's "Someone Like You") shot a music video in London, including some scenes of Morrison driving around the city. Sounds simple enough, except the singer didn't have a license and didn't even know how to drive. Nava kept Morrison on the side streets so his erratic driving wouldn't get them into trouble.
• Mark Morrison's hit song returned to our ears when it was featured in the third episode of the Netflix series Master of None in November 2015.
• The Los Angeles rapper Mann released a cover version of the song, featuring vocals from Snoop Dogg and Iyaz. Their breezy re-imagining peaked at #28 in the UK in 2011.
• Morrison had a few more hits in the UK, but never again got higher than #76 ("Moan & Groan") in America. A series of arrests derailed his career.
• In 2017, this was used in Burger King commercials promoting their Mac N' Cheetos offering. In the spot, the heads of Chester Cheetah and Burger King's King are superimposed on people in the original video, which is as trippy as it sounds.
• The song was used in these movies:
  
  Blackberry (2023)
  Somebody I Used To Know (2023)
  Kill Your Friends (2015)
  
  And these TV shows:
  
  Time Bandits ("Home Again" - 2024)
  The Equalizer ("Condemned" - 2024)
  This Fool ("Emotional Timothy" - 2022)
  Euphoria ("Out Of Touch" - 2022)
  American Crime Story ("Not To Be Believed" and "The Telephone Hour" - 2021)
  Starstruck ("Spring" - 2021)
  Bull ("Her Own Two Feet" - 2019)
  DC's Legends Of Tomorrow ("Return of the Mack" - 2017)
  Master of None ("Hot Ticket" - 2015)
  It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia ("The Gang Group Dates" - 2015)
  My Mad Fat Diary ("Big Wide Road" - 2013)
  One Night Stand ("Mac's Day Out" - 2010)
  Entourage ("Fantasy Island" - 2008)