The Supernaturals are a guitar-based indie rock band from Glasgow, Scotland. Fronted by singer-songwriter James McColl, the band signed to Parlophone in 1996, and had a string of singles which were taken from their three albums and four EPs. Other members included Mark Guthrie, Derek McManus, Gavin Crawford and Ken McAlpine. The band's best known songs ("Smile" and "I Wasn't Built To Get Up") were featured prominently in a series of television advertisements. In total they scored five top 40 entries in the UK Singles Chart. The band broke up in 2002, before reforming in 2012, and they continue to record music, and perform concerts, to this day.

The band was formed in 1991 by Derek McManus (guitar), James McColl (guitar/vocals), Gavin Crawford (drums) and Mark Guthrie (bass). Their first release, on cassette, was "Big 7" in 1992 followed by "Dark Star" in early 1993. The band toured extensively around Scotland, selling copies of "Big 7" and "Dark Star" and building a fanbase. Ken McAlpine joined the band in early 1994 on keyboards with Sean Guthrie and Steve Jeffrey sitting in as his replacement on keyboards occasionally. The band often played long sets and featured many impromptu cover versions of songs by bands such as The Move, The Replacements and The Monkees. While still unsigned, they released the CD album Sitting in the Sun in 1994 and played at the Sound City Festival in Glasgow with the Trashcan Sinatras in April 1994. They followed this up with "Let it Bleat" in 1995. Gavin Crawford (drums) left the band in 1995 to be replaced by Alan Tilston. By mid 1995 The Supernaturals played unsigned at the Phoenix Festival and T in the Park. Having come to the attention of Andy Ross of Food Records in 1995, they were signed to Food/EMI in November 1995.

The band spent early 1996 recording their debut album with producer Pete Smith and played gigs supporting Dodgy (on their Big Top Tour), Tina Turner, Sleeper, Menswear, the Bluetones and Ash. The band's second release on Food, "Lazy Lover" was supported by a large UK tour with Silver Sun and Grasshow in late 1996. The band's next release "Day Before Yesterday's Man" was in January 1997 and the band toured with the Boo Radleys and Gene (band). They re-released "Smile" in April 1997 and their debut album It Doesn't Matter Anymore was released in May 1997. The song "Smile" was a success in Japan with the album staying on the chart in Japan for 12 weeks. The band toured Europe and the UK with Robbie Williams in late 1997. After spending early 1998 recording with Pete Smith, they released their second album A Tune a Day (named after the music instruction books) in August 1998 and three singles were released from the album, "I Wasn't Built to Get Up", "Sheffield Song" and "Everest" . This was supported by festival appearances and several headlining tours and a 30 date UK Arena and European tour with Robbie Williams and the Divine Comedy in early 1999.

The band left Food/EMI Records in late 1999. They recorded their third album What We Did Last Summer in Glasgow in 2000 and released it on Koch/Universal in May 2002. Mark Guthrie left the band in December 2000 and Ken McAlpine left the band in July 2001. They were replaced by David Mitchell (keyboards) and Paul Malcolm (guitars) with James McColl switching to bass. To support the release of the album the band toured around the UK and with The Proclaimers in late 2001 and made several appearances at festivals to support the album. The band's first single from the album "Finishing Credits" was on a list of song banned by the BBC in the wake of the 9/11 attacks due to the phrase "It's the end of the world as we know it" featuring in the song.

The band were nominated for an Ivor Novello Award in 1998 for best contemporary song for "Smile" along with The Verve's "The Drugs Don't Work" and Radiohead's "No Surprises". The band won a Tartan Clef award in 1997 as the best new Scottish band.

Songs are often related to other songs on the same album by a common theme. The album It Doesn't Matter Anymore received good reviews (8/10 NME and 4/5 Q) as did the follow-up A Tune a Day (7/10 NME and 4/5 Q).

The creative output saw around 100 songs written in five years. They played at music festivals in the UK, and around Europe, They were also a staple on compilation albums such as Shine, and played radio sessions for BBC Radio 1, Radio 2, Virgin and others. Television appearances included Top of the Pops, TFI Friday, The Jack Docherty Show, Fully Booked and The Big Breakfast, with keyboardist Ken McAlpine appearing as a contestant on Never Mind the Buzzcocks (for Phill Jupitus' team). The band performed at each T in the Park festival between 1995 and 1998.

"The Day Before Yesterday's Man" was used in the TV series Teachers, Hollyoaks and the film Shooting Fish.