Nevermind
Encyclopedia
Nevermind is the second studio album by the American rock
band Nirvana
, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig
, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records
. Frontman Kurt Cobain
sought to make music outside the restrictive confines of the Seattle grunge
scene, drawing influence from groups such as the Pixies and their use of song volume dynamics.
Despite low commercial expectations by the band and its record label, Nevermind became a surprise success in late 1991, largely due to the popularity of its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit
". By January 1992, it had replaced Michael Jackson
's album Dangerous at number one on the Billboard charts. The Recording Industry Association of America
has certified the album Diamond (over 10 million copies shipped), and the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Nevermind was responsible for bringing alternative rock
to a large mainstream audience, and critics subsequently regard it as one of the best rock albums of all time.
, formed by Kurt Cobain
and Krist Novoselic
, that had signed to Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. The group released its debut album Bleach
in 1989, with Chad Channing
on drums. However, Channing left Nirvana in 1990, and the band was in need of a permanent drummer. During a show by hardcore punk
band Scream
, the group's drummer, Dave Grohl
, impressed Novoselic and Cobain. When Scream unexpectedly disbanded, Grohl contacted Novoselic, made his way to Seattle, and was soon invited to join the band. Novoselic said in retrospect that when Grohl joined the band, everything "fell into place".
Meanwhile Cobain was writing a number of new songs. At the time Cobain was listening to bands like R.E.M.
, The Smithereens
and the Pixies. Feeling disillusioned by the heavy detuned rock popular in the Seattle grunge scene upon which Sub Pop had built its image, Cobain—inspired by his contemporary listening habits—began writing songs that were more melodic. A key development was the single "Sliver
", released on Sub Pop in 1990 (before Grohl joined the band), which Cobain said "was like a statement in a way. I had to write a pop song and release it on a single to prepare people for the next record. I wanted to write more songs like that." Grohl said that the band at that point often made the analogy of likening their music to children's music, in that the band tried to make its songs as simple as possible.
By the start of the 1990s, Sub Pop was experiencing financial difficulties. With rumors that Sub Pop would sign up as a subsidiary for a major label, the band decided to "cut out the middleman" and start to look for a major label. A number of labels courted the band, but Nirvana ultimately signed with Geffen Records
imprint DGC Records based upon the recommendation of its management company Gold Mountain, who also managed the band's idols (and recent Geffen signings) Sonic Youth
, and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon
.
suggested Butch Vig
as a potential producer. Nirvana particularly liked Vig's work with Killdozer
and called Vig up to tell him, "We want to sound as heavy as that record." In April 1990, the band traveled out to Vig's Smart Studios
in Madison
, Wisconsin to begin work on the album. Most of the basic song arrangements were completed by that time, but Cobain was still working on lyrics and the band was unsure of which songs to record. Ultimately, eight songs were recorded: "Immodium" (later renamed "Breed"), "Dive" (later released as the B-side
to "Sliver"), "In Bloom
", "Pay to Play" (eventually renamed "Stay Away" and given a new set of lyrics), "Sappy", "Lithium", "Here She Comes Now
" (released on Velvet Underground Tribute Album: Heaven and Hell Volume 1), and "Polly". The band had planned to record more tracks, but Cobain blew his voice out on "Lithium", forcing them to shut down recording. Vig was told that the band would come back to record more songs, but the producer did not hear anything for a while. Instead, the band used the sessions as a demo tape to shop for a new label. Within a few months, the tape was circulating amongst major labels, creating a buzz around the group.
After signing to Geffen, a number of producers for the album were suggested, including Scott Litt
, David Briggs
, and Don Dixon, but Nirvana still wanted Butch Vig. Novoselic noted in 2001 that the band was already nervous about recording on a major label, and the producers suggested by DGC wanted percentage points for working on the album. Instead, the band held out for Vig, with whom they felt comfortable collaborating. Afforded a budget of $65,000, Nirvana recorded Nevermind at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California in May and June 1991. Nirvana was originally set to record the album during March and April 1991, but the date kept getting pushed back in spite of the band's anxiousness to begin the sessions. To pay gas money to get to Los Angeles, Nirvana played a show where they performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit
" for the first time. The band sent Vig some rehearsal tapes prior to the sessions that featured songs recorded previously at Smart Studios, along with some new ones including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as You Are".
When the group arrived in California, Nirvana did a few days of pre-production where the band and Vig tightened up some of the song arrangements. The only recording carried over from the Smart Studios sessions was the song "Polly", which included cymbal crashes performed by Chad Channing. Once recording commenced, the band worked eight to ten hours a day. The band members tended to take two or three tries at instrumental takes; if the takes were not satisfactory at that point, they would move on to something else. The group had rehearsed the songs so much before recording started that often only a few takes were needed. Novoselic and Grohl finished their bass and drum tracks in a matter of days, but Cobain had to work longer on guitar overdubs, singing, and particularly lyrics (which sometimes were finished mere minutes before recording). Cobain's phrasing was so consistent on various takes that Vig would mix the takes together to create overdubs. Vig says that he often had to trick Cobain into recording additional takes for overdubs since the singer was averse to performing multiple takes. In particular, Vig convinced Cobain to double-track his vocals on the song "In Bloom" by telling him "John Lennon
did it." While the sessions went well generally, Vig said Cobain would become moody and difficult at times: "He'd be great for an hour, and then he'd sit in a corner and say nothing for an hour."
After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out to mix
the album. However, after a few days, both Vig and the band members realized that they were unhappy with how the mixes were turning out. As a result, they decided to call in someone else to oversee the mixing, with Geffen Records imprint DGC
supplying a list of possible options. The list contained several familiar names, including Scott Litt (known for his work with R.E.M.) and Ed Stasium
(known for his work with The Smithereens). However, Cobain feared that bringing in known mixers would result in the album sounding like the work of those bands. Instead, Cobain chose Andy Wallace
(who had co-produced Slayer's 1990 album Seasons in the Abyss
) from the bottom of the list. Novoselic recalled, "We said, 'right on,' because those Slayer records were so heavy." Wallace ran the songs through various special effects boxes and tweaked the drum sounds, completing about one mix per day. Both Wallace and Vig noted years later that upon hearing Wallace's work the band loved the mixes. After the album's release members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the polished sound the mixer had given Nevermind. Cobain said in Come as You Are, "Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I'm embarrassed by it now. It's closer to a Mötley Crüe
record than it is a punk rock record."
Nevermind was mastered
on the afternoon of August 2 at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California. Howie Weinberg
started working alone when no one else showed up at the appointed time in the studio; by the time Nirvana, Andy Wallace, and Gary Gersh arrived, Weinberg had mastered most of the album. One of the songs mastered at the session, a hidden track
called "Endless, Nameless" intended to appear at the end of "Something in the Way", was accidentally left off initial pressings of the album. Weinberg recalled, "In the beginning, it was kind of a verbal thing to put that track at the end. Maybe I misconstrued their instructions, so you can call it my mistake if you want. Maybe I didn't write it down when Nirvana or the record company said to do it. So, when they pressed the first twenty thousand or so CDs, albums, and cassettes, it wasn't on there." When the band discovered the song's omission after listening to its copy of the album, Cobain called Weinberg and demanded he rectify the mistake. Weinberg complied and added about ten minutes of silence between the end of "Something in the Way" and the start of the hidden track on future pressings of the album.
s and wrote songs that combined pop hooks with dissonant guitar rhythms. His aim for Nevermind' s material was to sound like the "Bay City Rollers
getting molested by Black Flag
". Many of the songs on Nevermind feature shifts in dynamics, where the band changes from quiet verses to loud choruses. Dave Grohl said this approach originated during a four-month period prior to the recording of the album, where the band would experiment with extreme dynamics during regular jam sessions.
Guitar World
wrote, "Kurt Cobain's guitar sound on Nirvana's Nevermind set the tone for Nineties rock music." On Nevermind, Cobain played a 1960s Fender Mustang
, a Fender Jaguar
with DiMarzio pickups, and a few Fender Stratocaster
s with humbucker
bridge pickups. The guitarist used distortion and chorus
pedals as his main effects, the latter used to generate a "watery" sound on "Come as You Are" and the pre-choruses of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Krist Novoselic tuned down his bass guitar one and a half steps to D flat "to get this fat-ass sound."
evaluation of my lyrics, when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed them incorrectly?"
Charles R. Cross
asserted in his 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven
, that many of the songs written for Nevermind were about Cobain's dysfunctional relationship with Tobi Vail
. After the relationship ended, Cobain began writing and painting violent scenes, many of which revealed hatred for himself and others. Songs written during this period were less violent, but still reflected anger absent from Cobain's earlier songs. Cross wrote "In the four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail". "Drain You" begins with the line "One baby to another said 'I'm lucky to have met you'", quoting what Vail had once told Cobain, and the line "It is now my duty to completely drain you" refers to the power Vail had over Kurt in their relationship. According to Novoselic, "'Lounge Act' is about Tobi", and the song contains the line "I'll arrest myself, I'll wear a shield", referring to Cobain having the K Records
logo tattooed on his arm to impress Vail. Though "Lithium" had been written before Cobain knew Vail, the lyrics of the song were changed to reference her. Cobain also said in an interview with Musician
that "some of my very personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that the person in the song is feeling–very lonely, sick."
The Nevermind album cover
shows a baby swimming toward a US dollar bill on a fishhook. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water birth
s with Grohl. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen's art director Robert Fisher
. Fisher found some stock footage of underwater births but they were too graphic for the record company. Also, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby that they subsequently settled on wanted $7,500 a year for its use, so instead Fisher sent a photographer to a pool for babies to take pictures. Five shots resulted and the band settled on the image of a three-month-old infant named Spencer Elden, the son of the photographer's friend. However, there was some concern because Elden's penis
was visible in the image. Geffen prepared an alternate cover without the penis, as they were afraid that it would offend people, but relented when Cobain made it clear that the only compromise he would accept was a sticker covering the penis that would say, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."
The back cover of the album features a photograph of a rubber monkey in front of a collage created by Cobain. The collage features photos of raw beef from a supermarket advertisement, images from Dante's
Inferno
, and pictures of diseased vaginas from Cobain's collection of medical photos. Cobain noted, "If you look real close, there is a picture of Kiss
in the back standing on a slab of beef." The album's liner notes contain no complete song lyrics; instead, the liner contains random song lyrics and unused lyrical fragments that Cobain arranged into a poem.
. The best estimate was that if all involved worked hard, the record could possibly be certified
Gold by September 1992.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
at number 144. Geffen shipped about half of the initial US pressing to the American Northwest, where it sold out quickly and was unavailable for days. Geffen reputedly put production of all other albums on hold in order to fulfill demand in the region. Nevermind was already selling well but, over the next few months, the momentum increased significantly as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" unexpectedly became more and more popular. The song's video had received a world premiere on MTV
's late night alternative show 120 Minutes
but it soon proved so popular that the channel began playing it during the day. The record was soon certified gold, but the band was relatively uninterested in the achievement. Novoselic recalled, "Yeah I was happy about it. It was pretty cool. It was kind of neat. But I don't give a shit about some kind of achievement like that. It's cool—I guess."
As the band set out for their European tour at the start of November 1991, Nevermind entered the Billboard Top 40 for the first time at number 35. By this point, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had become a genuine hit and the album was selling so fast none of Geffen's marketing strategies aimed at different sales levels could be enacted. Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt told The New York Times
, "We didn't do anything. It was just one of those 'Get out of the way and duck' records." Nirvana found as they toured Europe during the end of 1991 that the shows were dangerously oversold, television crews became a constant presence onstage, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost omnipresent on radio and music television.
Nevermind became Nirvana's first number one album on January 11, 1992, replacing Michael Jackson at the top of the Billboard charts. By this time, Nevermind was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. "Come as You Are" was finally released as the second single in March 1992; it peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100
singles chart. Two more singles, "Lithium" and "In Bloom", were released from the album.
Nevermind was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
in November 1991, and was certified Diamond in March 1999. It was also certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units sold) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
in March 2001 and two times Platinum in the United Kingdom. In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs released Nevermind on vinyl
as part of its ANADISQ 200 series, and as a 24-carat
gold Compact Disc. The CD pressings included "Endless, Nameless". The LP version quickly sold out its limited pressing but the CD edition stayed in print for years. Universal Music Enterprises further released a 4-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition of Nevermind in September 2011.
gave Nevermind an A– rating, and reviewer David Browne
argued that on Nevermind, Nirvana "never entertain the notion" of wanting to sound "normal," compared to other contemporary alternative bands. Concluding his very enthusiastic review for the British Melody Maker
, Everett True
wrote that "When Nirvana released Bleach all those years ago, the more sussed among us figured they had the potential to make an album that would blow every other contender away. My God have they proved us right." Spin
gave Nevermind a favorable review stating that "you'll be humming all the songs for the rest of your life—or at least until your CD-tape-album wears out." Select gave the album a four out of five rating and compared the band to Jane's Addiction
, Sonic Youth
and The Pixies stating that the album "proves that Nirvana truly belong in such high company."
Rolling Stone
gave the album three out of five stars (despite the current Rolling Stone website awarding it four stars, the original print publication gave it three); reviewer Ira Robbins wrote, "If Nirvana isn't onto anything altogether new, Nevermind does possess the songs, character and confident spirit to be much more than a reformulation of college radio's high-octane hits." The Boston Globe
was less enthusiastic about the album; reviewer Steve Morse wrote, "Most of Nevermind is packed with generic punk-pop that had been done by countless acts from Iggy Pop
to the Red Hot Chili Peppers
," and added "the band has little or nothing to say, settling for moronic ramblings by singer-lyricist Cobain."
Nevermind was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice
Pazz & Jop
critics' poll; "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls. Nevermind topped the poll by a large majority, and Village Voice critic Robert Christgau
wrote in his companion piece to the poll, "As a modest pop surprise they might have scored a modest victory, like De La Soul
in 1990. Instead, their multi-platinum takeover constituted the first full-scale public validation of the Amerindie values—the noise, the toons, the 'tude—the radder half of the [Pazz & Jop poll] electorate came up on." In 2011 Nevermind took No.3 position in Best Album On Earth, the popular rating site founded by Colin Larkin
editor of the Virgin Top 1000 Albums and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music
.
movement, but also brought alternative rock
as a whole into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability. Neverminds success surprised Nirvana's contemporaries, who felt dwarfed by its impact. Fugazi's Guy Picciotto
later commented: "It was like our record could have been a hobo pissing in the forest for the amount of impact it had. [...] It felt like we were playing ukuleles all of a sudden because of the disparity of the impact of what they did". In 1992, Jon Pareles
of The New York Times described that in the aftermath of the album's breakthrough, "Suddenly, all bets are off. No one has the inside track on which of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ornery, obstreperous, unkempt bands might next appeal to the mall-walking millions". Record company executives offered large advances and record deals to bands, and previous strategies of building audiences for alternative rock bands had been replaced by the opportunity to achieve mainstream popularity quickly.
Michael Azerrad
argued in his Nirvana biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana
(1993) that Nevermind marked the emergence of a generation of music fans in their twenties in a climate dominated by the musical tastes of the baby boomer
generation that preceded them. Azerrad wrote, "Nevermind came along at exactly the right time. This was music by, for, and about a whole new group of young people who had been overlooked, ignored, or condescended to." Rolling Stone wrote in its entry for Nevermind on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, "No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation—a nation of teens suddenly turned punk—and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator."
Nevermind has continued to garner critical praise since its release. The album was listed at number 17 on Rolling Stone's list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
". Time placed Nevermind, which writer Josh Tyrangiel
called "the finest album of the 90s," on its 2006 list of "The All-TIME 100 Albums." Pitchfork Media
named the album the sixth best of the decade, noting that "anyone who hates this record today is just trying to be cool, and needs to be trying harder." In 2006, readers of Guitar World ranked Nevermind 8th on a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Recordings. In 2005, the Library of Congress
added Nevermind to the National Recording Registry
, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.
except where noted.
"Territorial Pissings" begins with Krist Novoselic singing the chorus of "Get Together" (written by Chet Powers
) out of tune.
Original Album (remastered) + B-sides
CD two
The Smart Studio Sessions, The Boombox Rehearsals, BBC Sessions
The Devonshire Mixes
CD four
Live at the Paramount
DVD
Additional musicians
Technical staff and artwork
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Nirvana
Nirvana (band)
Nirvana was an American rock band that was formed by singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic in Aberdeen, Washington in 1987...
, released on September 24, 1991. Produced by Butch Vig
Butch Vig
Butch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
, Nevermind was the group's first release on DGC Records
DGC Records
DGC Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and currently operates as an auxiliary label of Interscope Records.-Company history:...
. Frontman Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
sought to make music outside the restrictive confines of the Seattle grunge
Grunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
scene, drawing influence from groups such as the Pixies and their use of song volume dynamics.
Despite low commercial expectations by the band and its record label, Nevermind became a surprise success in late 1991, largely due to the popularity of its first single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...
". By January 1992, it had replaced Michael Jackson
Michael Jackson
Michael Joseph Jackson was an American recording artist, entertainer, and businessman. Referred to as the King of Pop, or by his initials MJ, Jackson is recognized as the most successful entertainer of all time by Guinness World Records...
's album Dangerous at number one on the Billboard charts. The Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
has certified the album Diamond (over 10 million copies shipped), and the album has sold over 30 million copies worldwide. Nevermind was responsible for bringing alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
to a large mainstream audience, and critics subsequently regard it as one of the best rock albums of all time.
Background
Nirvana was a band from Aberdeen, WashingtonAberdeen, Washington
Aberdeen is a city in Grays Harbor County, Washington, United States, founded by Samuel Benn in 1884. Aberdeen was incorporated on May 12, 1890. The city is the economic center of Grays Harbor County, bordering the cities of Hoquiam and Cosmopolis...
, formed by Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
and Krist Novoselic
Krist Novoselic
Krist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
, that had signed to Seattle independent record label Sub Pop. The group released its debut album Bleach
Bleach (album)
Bleach is the debut album by the American rock band Nirvana, released in June 1989 through the independent record label Sub Pop. The main recording sessions took place at Reciprocal Recording in Seattle, Washington between December 1988 and January 1989...
in 1989, with Chad Channing
Chad Channing
Chad Channing is an American musician who is best known for being the drummer of the band Nirvana from 1988 until 1990, during which time they recorded and released their debut album Bleach...
on drums. However, Channing left Nirvana in 1990, and the band was in need of a permanent drummer. During a show by hardcore punk
Hardcore punk
Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...
band Scream
Scream (band)
Scream is a hardcore punk band from Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia active from 1981 to 1990. As of 2009, the band has reunited to play several shows.-Biography:...
, the group's drummer, Dave Grohl
Dave Grohl
David Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
, impressed Novoselic and Cobain. When Scream unexpectedly disbanded, Grohl contacted Novoselic, made his way to Seattle, and was soon invited to join the band. Novoselic said in retrospect that when Grohl joined the band, everything "fell into place".
Meanwhile Cobain was writing a number of new songs. At the time Cobain was listening to bands like R.E.M.
R.E.M.
R.E.M. was an American rock band formed in Athens, Georgia, in 1980 by singer Michael Stipe, guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills and drummer Bill Berry. One of the first popular alternative rock bands, R.E.M. gained early attention due to Buck's ringing, arpeggiated guitar style and Stipe's...
, The Smithereens
The Smithereens
The Smithereens are a rock band from Carteret, New Jersey, United States. The group formed in 1980 with members Pat DiNizio , Jim Babjak , Mike Mesaros , and Dennis Diken...
and the Pixies. Feeling disillusioned by the heavy detuned rock popular in the Seattle grunge scene upon which Sub Pop had built its image, Cobain—inspired by his contemporary listening habits—began writing songs that were more melodic. A key development was the single "Sliver
Sliver (song)
"Sliver" is a song by American grunge band Nirvana. It was originally released as a non-album single in 1990 by Sub Pop. DGC re-released the song to radio to support the release of the rarities compilation album Incesticide in 1992....
", released on Sub Pop in 1990 (before Grohl joined the band), which Cobain said "was like a statement in a way. I had to write a pop song and release it on a single to prepare people for the next record. I wanted to write more songs like that." Grohl said that the band at that point often made the analogy of likening their music to children's music, in that the band tried to make its songs as simple as possible.
By the start of the 1990s, Sub Pop was experiencing financial difficulties. With rumors that Sub Pop would sign up as a subsidiary for a major label, the band decided to "cut out the middleman" and start to look for a major label. A number of labels courted the band, but Nirvana ultimately signed with Geffen Records
Geffen Records
Geffen Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and operated as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-Beginnings:...
imprint DGC Records based upon the recommendation of its management company Gold Mountain, who also managed the band's idols (and recent Geffen signings) Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
, and Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon
Kim Gordon
Kim Althea Gordon is an American musician, vocalist, artist, record producer, video director and actress. She has sung and played bass and guitar in the alternative rock band Sonic Youth, and in Free Kitten with Julia Cafritz...
.
Recording and production
In the spring of 1990, Nirvana began planning its second album for Sub Pop, tentatively titled Sheep. For the album, Sub Pop head Bruce PavittBruce Pavitt
-History:After briefly attending Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois and subsequently transferring to The Evergreen State College in Washington State, Pavitt started a fanzine entitled Subterranean Pop in Olympia, Washington in 1980, about American independent rock bands. Three cassette...
suggested Butch Vig
Butch Vig
Butch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
as a potential producer. Nirvana particularly liked Vig's work with Killdozer
Killdozer (band)
Killdozer was an American noise-rock band, formed in Madison, Wisconsin in 1983, with members Bill Hobson, Dan Hobson and Michael Gerald. They took their name from the 1974 TV movie, directed by Jerry London, itself based on a Theodore Sturgeon short story. They released their first album,...
and called Vig up to tell him, "We want to sound as heavy as that record." In April 1990, the band traveled out to Vig's Smart Studios
Smart Studios
Smart Studios was a recording studio located at 1254 E Washington Ave in Madison, Wisconsin. It was set up in 1983 by Butch Vig and Steve Marker to produce local bands....
in Madison
Madison, Wisconsin
Madison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, Wisconsin to begin work on the album. Most of the basic song arrangements were completed by that time, but Cobain was still working on lyrics and the band was unsure of which songs to record. Ultimately, eight songs were recorded: "Immodium" (later renamed "Breed"), "Dive" (later released as the B-side
A-side and B-side
A-side and B-side originally referred to the two sides of gramophone records on which singles were released beginning in the 1950s. The terms have come to refer to the types of song conventionally placed on each side of the record, with the A-side being the featured song , while the B-side, or...
to "Sliver"), "In Bloom
In Bloom
"In Bloom" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. Written by frontman Kurt Cobain, the song addresses people outside of the underground music community who did not understand the band's message....
", "Pay to Play" (eventually renamed "Stay Away" and given a new set of lyrics), "Sappy", "Lithium", "Here She Comes Now
Here She Comes Now/Venus in Furs
"Here She Comes Now"/"Venus in Furs" is a split single from the American rock bands Nirvana and The Melvins. It was released in 1991 and includes the songs "Here She Comes Now" performed by Nirvana, and "Venus in Furs" performed by The Melvins...
" (released on Velvet Underground Tribute Album: Heaven and Hell Volume 1), and "Polly". The band had planned to record more tracks, but Cobain blew his voice out on "Lithium", forcing them to shut down recording. Vig was told that the band would come back to record more songs, but the producer did not hear anything for a while. Instead, the band used the sessions as a demo tape to shop for a new label. Within a few months, the tape was circulating amongst major labels, creating a buzz around the group.
After signing to Geffen, a number of producers for the album were suggested, including Scott Litt
Scott Litt
Scott Litt is an American record producer who mostly works with artists in the alternative rock genre and is best known for producing six R.E.M. albums.-Biography:...
, David Briggs
David Briggs (producer)
David Briggs was an American record producer best known for his work with Neil Young and his band Crazy Horse. He is noted for his eclectic imagination and style.-Early life:David Briggs was born in Douglas, Wyoming...
, and Don Dixon, but Nirvana still wanted Butch Vig. Novoselic noted in 2001 that the band was already nervous about recording on a major label, and the producers suggested by DGC wanted percentage points for working on the album. Instead, the band held out for Vig, with whom they felt comfortable collaborating. Afforded a budget of $65,000, Nirvana recorded Nevermind at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California in May and June 1991. Nirvana was originally set to record the album during March and April 1991, but the date kept getting pushed back in spite of the band's anxiousness to begin the sessions. To pay gas money to get to Los Angeles, Nirvana played a show where they performed "Smells Like Teen Spirit
Smells Like Teen Spirit
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...
" for the first time. The band sent Vig some rehearsal tapes prior to the sessions that featured songs recorded previously at Smart Studios, along with some new ones including "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "Come as You Are".
When the group arrived in California, Nirvana did a few days of pre-production where the band and Vig tightened up some of the song arrangements. The only recording carried over from the Smart Studios sessions was the song "Polly", which included cymbal crashes performed by Chad Channing. Once recording commenced, the band worked eight to ten hours a day. The band members tended to take two or three tries at instrumental takes; if the takes were not satisfactory at that point, they would move on to something else. The group had rehearsed the songs so much before recording started that often only a few takes were needed. Novoselic and Grohl finished their bass and drum tracks in a matter of days, but Cobain had to work longer on guitar overdubs, singing, and particularly lyrics (which sometimes were finished mere minutes before recording). Cobain's phrasing was so consistent on various takes that Vig would mix the takes together to create overdubs. Vig says that he often had to trick Cobain into recording additional takes for overdubs since the singer was averse to performing multiple takes. In particular, Vig convinced Cobain to double-track his vocals on the song "In Bloom" by telling him "John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
did it." While the sessions went well generally, Vig said Cobain would become moody and difficult at times: "He'd be great for an hour, and then he'd sit in a corner and say nothing for an hour."
After the recording sessions were completed, Vig and the band set out to mix
Audio mixing (recorded music)
In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may...
the album. However, after a few days, both Vig and the band members realized that they were unhappy with how the mixes were turning out. As a result, they decided to call in someone else to oversee the mixing, with Geffen Records imprint DGC
DGC Records
DGC Records is an American record label, owned by Universal Music Group, and currently operates as an auxiliary label of Interscope Records.-Company history:...
supplying a list of possible options. The list contained several familiar names, including Scott Litt (known for his work with R.E.M.) and Ed Stasium
Ed Stasium
Ed Stasium is an American record producer and engineer who has worked on albums by The Ramones, Talking Heads, The Smithereens and Living Colour.- History :Stasium first surfaced in 1970 fronting the band Brandywine, appearing on their sole LP Aged....
(known for his work with The Smithereens). However, Cobain feared that bringing in known mixers would result in the album sounding like the work of those bands. Instead, Cobain chose Andy Wallace
Andy Wallace (producer)
Andy Wallace is a Grammy Award-winning music studio engineer with a long track record of successful productions, beginning with the 1986 production of the Run-DMC/Aerosmith collaboration on "Walk This Way" with Rick Rubin...
(who had co-produced Slayer's 1990 album Seasons in the Abyss
Seasons in the Abyss
Seasons in the Abyss is the fifth studio album by the thrash metal band Slayer. It was released on October 9, 1990 through Def American Records, and later through American Recordings after the company changed its name. The album's recording sessions began in January 1990...
) from the bottom of the list. Novoselic recalled, "We said, 'right on,' because those Slayer records were so heavy." Wallace ran the songs through various special effects boxes and tweaked the drum sounds, completing about one mix per day. Both Wallace and Vig noted years later that upon hearing Wallace's work the band loved the mixes. After the album's release members of Nirvana expressed dissatisfaction with the polished sound the mixer had given Nevermind. Cobain said in Come as You Are, "Looking back on the production of Nevermind, I'm embarrassed by it now. It's closer to a Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe
Mötley Crüe is an American heavy metal band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1981. The group was founded by bass guitarist Nikki Sixx and drummer Tommy Lee, who were later joined by lead guitarist Mick Mars and lead singer Vince Neil...
record than it is a punk rock record."
Nevermind was mastered
Audio mastering
Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...
on the afternoon of August 2 at The Mastering Lab in Hollywood, California. Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg
Howie Weinberg is a music mastering engineer who has worked with numerous bands.- Career :He has worked at Masterdisk, New York City, since 1977...
started working alone when no one else showed up at the appointed time in the studio; by the time Nirvana, Andy Wallace, and Gary Gersh arrived, Weinberg had mastered most of the album. One of the songs mastered at the session, a hidden track
Hidden track
In the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
called "Endless, Nameless" intended to appear at the end of "Something in the Way", was accidentally left off initial pressings of the album. Weinberg recalled, "In the beginning, it was kind of a verbal thing to put that track at the end. Maybe I misconstrued their instructions, so you can call it my mistake if you want. Maybe I didn't write it down when Nirvana or the record company said to do it. So, when they pressed the first twenty thousand or so CDs, albums, and cassettes, it wasn't on there." When the band discovered the song's omission after listening to its copy of the album, Cobain called Weinberg and demanded he rectify the mistake. Weinberg complied and added about ten minutes of silence between the end of "Something in the Way" and the start of the hidden track on future pressings of the album.
Composition
Music
Cobain, Nirvana's main songwriter, fashioned chord sequences that were based mainly around power chordPower chord
In music, a power chord is a chord consisting of only the root note of the chord and the fifth interval, usually played on electric guitar, and typically through an amplification process that imparts distortion...
s and wrote songs that combined pop hooks with dissonant guitar rhythms. His aim for Nevermind
Bay City Rollers
The Bay City Rollers were a Scottish pop band who were most popular in the 1970s. The British Hit Singles & Albums noted that they were "tartan teen sensations from Edinburgh", and were "the first of many acts heralded as the 'Biggest Group since The Beatles' and one of the most screamed-at...
getting molested by Black Flag
Black Flag (band)
Black Flag was an American punk rock band formed in 1976 in Hermosa Beach, California. The band was established by Greg Ginn, the guitarist, primary songwriter and sole continuous member through multiple personnel changes in the band...
". Many of the songs on Nevermind feature shifts in dynamics, where the band changes from quiet verses to loud choruses. Dave Grohl said this approach originated during a four-month period prior to the recording of the album, where the band would experiment with extreme dynamics during regular jam sessions.
Guitar World
Guitar World
Guitar World is a monthly music magazine devoted to guitarists. It contains original interviews, album and gear reviews and guitar and bass tablature of approximately five songs each month. The magazine is published 13 times per year...
wrote, "Kurt Cobain's guitar sound on Nirvana's Nevermind set the tone for Nineties rock music." On Nevermind, Cobain played a 1960s Fender Mustang
Fender Mustang
The Fender Mustang is an electric guitar by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation, introduced in 1964 as the basis of a major redesign of Fender's student models then consisting of the Musicmaster and Duo-Sonic. It was produced until 1982 and reissued in 1990.In the 1960s, it was used in Surf...
, a Fender Jaguar
Fender Jaguar
The Fender Jaguar is an electric guitar introduced in 1962. A descendant of the Jazzmaster, the Jaguar quickly caught on in the emerging Surf music scene...
with DiMarzio pickups, and a few Fender Stratocaster
Fender Stratocaster
The Fender Stratocaster, often referred to as "Strat", is a model of electric guitar designed by Leo Fender, George Fullerton, and Freddie Tavares in 1954, and manufactured continuously by the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation to the present. It is a double-cutaway guitar, with an extended top...
s with humbucker
Humbucker
A humbucker is a type of electric guitar pickup, first patented by Seth Lover and the Gibson company, that uses two coils, both generating string signal. Humbuckers have higher output than a single coil pickup since both coils are connected in series...
bridge pickups. The guitarist used distortion and chorus
Chorus effect
In music, a chorus effect occurs when individual sounds with roughly the same timbre and nearly the same pitch converge and are perceived as one...
pedals as his main effects, the latter used to generate a "watery" sound on "Come as You Are" and the pre-choruses of "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Krist Novoselic tuned down his bass guitar one and a half steps to D flat "to get this fat-ass sound."
Lyrics
Grohl said that Cobain told him, "Music comes first, lyrics come second," and Grohl believes that above all Cobain focused on the melodies of his songs. Cobain was still working on the album's lyrics well into the recording of Nevermind. Additionally, Cobain's phrasing on the album is often difficult to understand. Vig asserted that clarity of Cobain's singing was not paramount. Vig said, "Even though you couldn't quite tell what he was singing about, you knew it was intense as hell." Cobain would later complain when rock journalists attempted to decipher his singing and extract meaning from his lyrics, writing "Why in the hell do journalists insist on coming up with a second-rate FreudianSigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud , born Sigismund Schlomo Freud , was an Austrian neurologist who founded the discipline of psychoanalysis...
evaluation of my lyrics, when 90 percent of the time they've transcribed them incorrectly?"
Charles R. Cross
Charles R. Cross
Charles R. Cross is a journalist and author of seven books based in Seattle. He was the Editor of The Rocket Magazine in Seattle for fifteen years during the height of the Seattle music mania. He is also the founder of Backstreets Magazine, a periodical for fans of Bruce Springsteen, and editor of...
asserted in his 2001 biography of Kurt Cobain, Heavier Than Heaven
Heavier Than Heaven
Heavier Than Heaven is the name of a 2001 biography of musician Kurt Cobain, the frontman of the grunge band Nirvana. It was written by Charles R...
, that many of the songs written for Nevermind were about Cobain's dysfunctional relationship with Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail
Tobi Vail is an independent musician, DIY zinester, and feminist activist from Olympia, Washington, noted primarily as the drummer of the defunct punk band Bikini Kill. She formed one of her first bands as the drummer for The Go Team when she was 15, later collaborating in several other groups...
. After the relationship ended, Cobain began writing and painting violent scenes, many of which revealed hatred for himself and others. Songs written during this period were less violent, but still reflected anger absent from Cobain's earlier songs. Cross wrote "In the four months following their break-up, Kurt would write a half dozen of his most memorable songs, all of them about Tobi Vail". "Drain You" begins with the line "One baby to another said 'I'm lucky to have met you'", quoting what Vail had once told Cobain, and the line "It is now my duty to completely drain you" refers to the power Vail had over Kurt in their relationship. According to Novoselic, "'Lounge Act' is about Tobi", and the song contains the line "I'll arrest myself, I'll wear a shield", referring to Cobain having the K Records
K Records
K Records is an independent record label in Olympia, Washington, co-founded, owned, and operated by Calvin Johnson, formerly of the bands Cool Rays, Beat Happening, The Go Team, The Halo Benders and presently in the bands Dub Narcotic Sound System and The Hive Dwellers...
logo tattooed on his arm to impress Vail. Though "Lithium" had been written before Cobain knew Vail, the lyrics of the song were changed to reference her. Cobain also said in an interview with Musician
Musician (magazine)
Musician was a monthly magazine that covered news and information about American popular music. Initially called "Music America", it was founded in 1976 by Sam Holdsworth and Gordon Baird. The two friends borrowed $20,000 from relatives and started the publication in a barn in Colorado...
that "some of my very personal experiences, like breaking up with girlfriends and having bad relationships, feeling that death void that the person in the song is feeling–very lonely, sick."
Packaging
The album's tentative title Sheep was something Cobain created as an inside joke towards the people he expected to buy the record. He wrote a fake advertisement for Sheep in his journal that read "Because you want to not; because everyone else is." Novoselic said the inspiration for the title was the band's cynicism about the public's reaction to Operation Desert Storm. As recording sessions for the album were completed, Cobain grew tired of the title and suggested to Novoselic that the new album be named Nevermind. Cobain liked the title because it was a metaphor for his attitude on life, and because it was grammatically incorrect.The Nevermind album cover
Album cover
An album cover is the front of the packaging of a commercially released audio recording product, or album. The term can refer to either the printed cardboard covers typically used to package sets of 10" and 12" 78 rpm records, single and sets of 12" LPs, sets of 45 rpm records , or the front-facing...
shows a baby swimming toward a US dollar bill on a fishhook. According to Cobain, he conceived the idea while watching a television program on water birth
Water birth
Water birth is a method of giving birth, which involves immersion in warm water. The immersion can mean giving birth to the infant in the water or using it as a tool during the labor process. Proponents believe that this method is safe and provides many benefits for both mother and infant,...
s with Grohl. Cobain mentioned it to Geffen's art director Robert Fisher
Robert M. Fisher
Robert Miles Fisher , was an American abstract artist in oils, watercolor, charcoal, and welded sculpture.-Biography:...
. Fisher found some stock footage of underwater births but they were too graphic for the record company. Also, the stock house that controlled the photo of a swimming baby that they subsequently settled on wanted $7,500 a year for its use, so instead Fisher sent a photographer to a pool for babies to take pictures. Five shots resulted and the band settled on the image of a three-month-old infant named Spencer Elden, the son of the photographer's friend. However, there was some concern because Elden's penis
Human penis
The human penis is an external sexual organ of male humans. It is a reproductive, intromittent organ that additionally serves as the urinal duct.-Parts:...
was visible in the image. Geffen prepared an alternate cover without the penis, as they were afraid that it would offend people, but relented when Cobain made it clear that the only compromise he would accept was a sticker covering the penis that would say, "If you're offended by this, you must be a closet pedophile."
The back cover of the album features a photograph of a rubber monkey in front of a collage created by Cobain. The collage features photos of raw beef from a supermarket advertisement, images from Dante's
Dante Alighieri
Durante degli Alighieri, mononymously referred to as Dante , was an Italian poet, prose writer, literary theorist, moral philosopher, and political thinker. He is best known for the monumental epic poem La commedia, later named La divina commedia ...
Inferno
Inferno (Dante)
Inferno is the first part of Dante Alighieri's 14th-century epic poem Divine Comedy. It is followed by Purgatorio and Paradiso. It is an allegory telling of the journey of Dante through what is largely the medieval concept of Hell, guided by the Roman poet Virgil. In the poem, Hell is depicted as...
, and pictures of diseased vaginas from Cobain's collection of medical photos. Cobain noted, "If you look real close, there is a picture of Kiss
KISS (band)
Kiss is an American rock band formed in New York City in January 1973. Well-known for its members' face paint and flamboyant stage outfits, the group rose to prominence in the mid to late 1970s on the basis of their elaborate live performances, which featured fire breathing, blood spitting,...
in the back standing on a slab of beef." The album's liner notes contain no complete song lyrics; instead, the liner contains random song lyrics and unused lyrical fragments that Cobain arranged into a poem.
Release
Nevermind was released on September 24, 1991. American record stores received an initial shipment of 46,251 copies, while 35,000 copies were shipped in the United Kingdom, where Bleach had been successful. The lead single "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had been released on September 10 with the intention of being a base-building cut among alternative rock fans, while the next single "Come as You Are" would be the song that would possibly garner more attention. The band set out on a short American tour four days before the release date to support the album. Geffen Records hoped that Nevermind would sell around 250,000 copies, which was the same level the record company had achieved with Sonic Youth's Geffen debut GooGoo (album)
Goo is the sixth album by the American alternative rock band Sonic Youth, released on June 26, 1990. Goo was the first album released after the band signed to major label Geffen Records.-Background and recording:...
. The best estimate was that if all involved worked hard, the record could possibly be certified
RIAA certification
In the United States, the Recording Industry Association of America awards certification based on the number of albums and singles sold through retail and other ancillary markets. Other countries have similar awards...
Gold by September 1992.
The album debuted on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
at number 144. Geffen shipped about half of the initial US pressing to the American Northwest, where it sold out quickly and was unavailable for days. Geffen reputedly put production of all other albums on hold in order to fulfill demand in the region. Nevermind was already selling well but, over the next few months, the momentum increased significantly as "Smells Like Teen Spirit" unexpectedly became more and more popular. The song's video had received a world premiere on MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's late night alternative show 120 Minutes
120 Minutes
120 Minutes is a television show in the United States dedicated to alternative music, originally airing on MTV from 1986 to 2000, and then on MTV's sister channel MTV2 from 2001 to 2003....
but it soon proved so popular that the channel began playing it during the day. The record was soon certified gold, but the band was relatively uninterested in the achievement. Novoselic recalled, "Yeah I was happy about it. It was pretty cool. It was kind of neat. But I don't give a shit about some kind of achievement like that. It's cool—I guess."
As the band set out for their European tour at the start of November 1991, Nevermind entered the Billboard Top 40 for the first time at number 35. By this point, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" had become a genuine hit and the album was selling so fast none of Geffen's marketing strategies aimed at different sales levels could be enacted. Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt told The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, "We didn't do anything. It was just one of those 'Get out of the way and duck' records." Nirvana found as they toured Europe during the end of 1991 that the shows were dangerously oversold, television crews became a constant presence onstage, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was almost omnipresent on radio and music television.
Nevermind became Nirvana's first number one album on January 11, 1992, replacing Michael Jackson at the top of the Billboard charts. By this time, Nevermind was selling approximately 300,000 copies a week. "Come as You Are" was finally released as the second single in March 1992; it peaked at number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100
Billboard Hot 100
The Billboard Hot 100 is the United States music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by Billboard magazine. Chart rankings are based on radio play and sales; the tracking-week for sales begins on Monday and ends on Sunday, while the radio play tracking-week runs from Wednesday...
singles chart. Two more singles, "Lithium" and "In Bloom", were released from the album.
Nevermind was certified Gold and Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
in November 1991, and was certified Diamond in March 1999. It was also certified Diamond in Canada (1,000,000 units sold) by the Canadian Recording Industry Association
Canadian Recording Industry Association
Music Canada is a Toronto-based, non-profit trade organization that was founded 9 April 1963 to represent the interests of companies that record, artists, manufacture, production, promotion and distribution of music in Canada...
in March 2001 and two times Platinum in the United Kingdom. In 1996, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs released Nevermind on vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
as part of its ANADISQ 200 series, and as a 24-carat
Carat (purity)
The karat or carat is a unit of purity for gold alloys.- Measure :Karat purity is measured as 24 times the purity by mass:where...
gold Compact Disc. The CD pressings included "Endless, Nameless". The LP version quickly sold out its limited pressing but the CD edition stayed in print for years. Universal Music Enterprises further released a 4-CD/1-DVD Super Deluxe Edition of Nevermind in September 2011.
Critical reception
Upon the album's release, several mainstream newspapers and magazines gave Nevermind positive reviews. Karen Schoemer of The New York Times wrote, "With 'Nevermind,' Nirvana has certainly succeeded. There are enough intriguing textures, mood shifts, instrumental snippets and inventive word plays to provide for hours of entertainment." Schoemer concluded, "'Nevermind' is more sophisticated and carefully produced than anything peer bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Mudhoney have yet offered." Entertainment WeeklyEntertainment Weekly
Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture...
gave Nevermind an A– rating, and reviewer David Browne
David Browne
David Browne is an American journalist and author. He was the resident music critic at Entertainment Weekly between 1990 and 2006. He was an editor at Music & Sound Output magazine and a music critic at the New York Daily News before EW...
argued that on Nevermind, Nirvana "never entertain the notion" of wanting to sound "normal," compared to other contemporary alternative bands. Concluding his very enthusiastic review for the British Melody Maker
Melody Maker
Melody Maker, published in the United Kingdom, was, according to its publisher IPC Media, the world's oldest weekly music newspaper. It was founded in 1926 as a magazine targeted at musicians; in 2000 it was merged into "long-standing rival" New Musical Express.-1950s–1960s:Originally the Melody...
, Everett True
Everett True
For the cartoon character, see The Outbursts of Everett True.Everett True is a British music journalist, who grew up in Chelmsford, Essex...
wrote that "When Nirvana released Bleach all those years ago, the more sussed among us figured they had the potential to make an album that would blow every other contender away. My God have they proved us right." Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
gave Nevermind a favorable review stating that "you'll be humming all the songs for the rest of your life—or at least until your CD-tape-album wears out." Select gave the album a four out of five rating and compared the band to Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction is an American alternative rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1985. The band's original line-up featured Perry Farrell , Dave Navarro , Eric Avery and Stephen Perkins . After breaking up in 1991, Jane's Addiction briefly reunited in 1997 and again in 2001, both times...
, Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth
Sonic Youth is an American alternative rock band from New York City, formed in 1981. The current lineup consists of Thurston Moore , Kim Gordon , Lee Ranaldo , Steve Shelley , and Mark Ibold .In their early career, Sonic Youth was associated with the No Wave art and music scene in New York City...
and The Pixies stating that the album "proves that Nirvana truly belong in such high company."
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
gave the album three out of five stars (despite the current Rolling Stone website awarding it four stars, the original print publication gave it three); reviewer Ira Robbins wrote, "If Nirvana isn't onto anything altogether new, Nevermind does possess the songs, character and confident spirit to be much more than a reformulation of college radio's high-octane hits." The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe
The Boston Globe is an American daily newspaper based in Boston, Massachusetts. The Boston Globe has been owned by The New York Times Company since 1993...
was less enthusiastic about the album; reviewer Steve Morse wrote, "Most of Nevermind is packed with generic punk-pop that had been done by countless acts from Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop
Iggy Pop is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and actor. Though considered an innovator of punk rock, Pop's music has encompassed a number of styles over the years, including pop, metal, jazz and blues...
to the Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers
Red Hot Chili Peppers is an American rock band, formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk, hip hop and psychedelic rock...
," and added "the band has little or nothing to say, settling for moronic ramblings by singer-lyricist Cobain."
Nevermind was voted as the best album of the year in The Village Voice
The Village Voice
The Village Voice is a free weekly newspaper and news and features website in New York City that features investigative articles, analysis of current affairs and culture, arts and music coverage, and events listings for New York City...
Pazz & Jop
Pazz & Jop
The Pazz & Jop critics' poll is a poll of music critics run by The Village Voice newspaper. It is compiled every year from the top ten lists of hundreds of music critics...
critics' poll; "Smells Like Teen Spirit" also topped the single of the year and video of the year polls. Nevermind topped the poll by a large majority, and Village Voice critic Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
wrote in his companion piece to the poll, "As a modest pop surprise they might have scored a modest victory, like De La Soul
De La Soul
De La Soul is an American hip hop trio formed in 1987 on Long Island, New York. The band is best known for their eclectic sampling, quirky lyrics, and their contributions to the evolution of the jazz rap and alternative hip hop subgenres...
in 1990. Instead, their multi-platinum takeover constituted the first full-scale public validation of the Amerindie values—the noise, the toons, the 'tude—the radder half of the [Pazz & Jop poll] electorate came up on." In 2011 Nevermind took No.3 position in Best Album On Earth, the popular rating site founded by Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin
Colin Larkin is an Irish professional footballer, who plays primarily as a forward. He currently plays for Hartlepool United.-Playing career:...
editor of the Virgin Top 1000 Albums and the Encyclopedia of Popular Music
Encyclopedia of Popular Music
The Encyclopedia of Popular Music was created in 1989 by Colin Larkin. It is the 'modern man's' equivalent of the Grove Dictionary of Music which Larkin describes in less than flattering terms.-History of the encyclopedia:...
.
Accolades
Since its release, Nevermind has been featured heavily in various "must have" lists compiled by the music media. Some of the more prominent of these lists to feature Nevermind are shown below; this information is adapted from Acclaimed Music.| Publication | Country | Accolade | Year | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kerrang! Kerrang! Kerrang! is a UK-based magazine devoted to rock music published by Bauer Media Group. It was first published on June 6, 1981 as a one-off supplement in the Sounds newspaper... |
United Kingdom | The Kerrang! 100 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die | 1998 | 4 |
| Classic Rock & Metal Hammer | United Kingdom | The 200 Greatest Albums of the 90s | 2006 | * |
| Robert Dimery | United States | 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die is a musical reference book edited by Robert Dimery, first published in 2005. The most recent edition consists of a list of albums released between 1955 and 2010, part of a series from Quintessence Editions Ltd... |
2005 | * |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
United States | The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:... |
2003 | 17 |
| Rolling Stone Rolling Stone Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J... |
United States | Best Albums of the 90s | 2010 | 1 |
| Spin Spin (magazine) Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard... |
United States | 100 Greatest Albums, 1985–2005 | 2005 | 3 |
| Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is a museum located on the shore of Lake Erie in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It is dedicated to archiving the history of some of the best-known and most influential artists, producers, engineers and others who have, in some major way,... |
United States | The Definitive 200 | 2005 | 10 |
| Time Magazine | United States | The All-TIME 100 Albums | 2006 | * |
Legacy
Nevermind not only popularized the Seattle grungeGrunge
Grunge is a subgenre of alternative rock that emerged during the mid-1980s in the American state of Washington, particularly in the Seattle area. Inspired by hardcore punk, heavy metal, and indie rock, grunge is generally characterized by heavily distorted electric guitars, contrasting song...
movement, but also brought alternative rock
Alternative rock
Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...
as a whole into the mainstream, establishing its commercial and cultural viability. Neverminds success surprised Nirvana's contemporaries, who felt dwarfed by its impact. Fugazi's Guy Picciotto
Guy Picciotto
Guy Picciotto is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, musician, and producer from Washington, DC.He is most widely known for his role as the guitarist and vocalist of Fugazi, as well as Rites of Spring.-Rites of Spring & Early Projects:...
later commented: "It was like our record could have been a hobo pissing in the forest for the amount of impact it had. [...] It felt like we were playing ukuleles all of a sudden because of the disparity of the impact of what they did". In 1992, Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles
Jon Pareles is an American journalist who is the chief popular music critic in the arts section of the New York Times. He played jazz flute and piano, and graduated from Yale University with a degree in music. In the 1970s he was an associate editor of Crawdaddy!, and in the 1980s an associate...
of The New York Times described that in the aftermath of the album's breakthrough, "Suddenly, all bets are off. No one has the inside track on which of dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ornery, obstreperous, unkempt bands might next appeal to the mall-walking millions". Record company executives offered large advances and record deals to bands, and previous strategies of building audiences for alternative rock bands had been replaced by the opportunity to achieve mainstream popularity quickly.
Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad
Michael Azerrad is an American author, journalist and musician. He grew up in the New York City area and received his BA degree from Columbia College in 1983...
argued in his Nirvana biography Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana
Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana
Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana is a 1993 book by Michael Azerrad, covering the career of Nirvana from its inception. For the book, Azerrad met with the members of the band and conducted extensive interviews about the band and its members' histories.The book was completed in June 1993, and...
(1993) that Nevermind marked the emergence of a generation of music fans in their twenties in a climate dominated by the musical tastes of the baby boomer
Baby boomer
A baby boomer is a person who was born during the demographic Post-World War II baby boom and who grew up during the period between 1946 and 1964. The term "baby boomer" is sometimes used in a cultural context. Therefore, it is impossible to achieve broad consensus of a precise definition, even...
generation that preceded them. Azerrad wrote, "Nevermind came along at exactly the right time. This was music by, for, and about a whole new group of young people who had been overlooked, ignored, or condescended to." Rolling Stone wrote in its entry for Nevermind on its 2003 list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, "No album in recent history had such an overpowering impact on a generation—a nation of teens suddenly turned punk—and such a catastrophic effect on its main creator."
Nevermind has continued to garner critical praise since its release. The album was listed at number 17 on Rolling Stone's list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
"The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" is the title of a 2003 special issue of American magazine Rolling Stone, and a related book published in 2005.Related news articles:...
". Time placed Nevermind, which writer Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel
Josh Tyrangiel is a journalist, and editor of Bloomberg Businessweek. He joined the magazine following its acquisition by Bloomberg L.P. in December 2009. Prior to joining Bloomberg Businessweek, Tyrangiel was deputy managing editor of TIME magazine and managing editor of TIME.com...
called "the finest album of the 90s," on its 2006 list of "The All-TIME 100 Albums." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
named the album the sixth best of the decade, noting that "anyone who hates this record today is just trying to be cool, and needs to be trying harder." In 2006, readers of Guitar World ranked Nevermind 8th on a list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Recordings. In 2005, the Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
added Nevermind to the National Recording Registry
National Recording Registry
The National Recording Registry is a list of sound recordings that "are culturally, historically, or aesthetically important, and/or inform or reflect life in the United States." The registry was established by the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000, which created the National Recording...
, which collects "culturally, historically or aesthetically important" sound recordings from the 20th century.
Track listing
All songs written by Kurt CobainKurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
except where noted.
- "Smells Like Teen SpiritSmells Like Teen Spirit"Smells Like Teen Spirit" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the opening track and lead single from the band's second album, Nevermind , released on DGC Records...
" (Cobain, Dave GrohlDave GrohlDavid Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
, Krist NovoselicKrist NovoselicKrist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
) – 5:01 - "In BloomIn Bloom"In Bloom" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. Written by frontman Kurt Cobain, the song addresses people outside of the underground music community who did not understand the band's message....
" – 4:14 - "Come as You Are" – 3:39
- "Breed" – 3:03
- "Lithium" – 4:17
- "PollyPolly (song)"Polly" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the sixth song on its 1991 album, Nevermind.-History:Dating back to at least 1988, "Polly" stands alongside "About a Girl" as one of singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain's earliest forays into unfiltered pop songwriting. It was originally titled...
" – 2:57 - "Territorial Pissings" – 2:22
- "Drain YouDrain You"Drain You" is a 1991 song by American grunge band Nirvana and the eighth track from their breakthrough album Nevermind. It is most famous as a B-side on the band's most successful single "Smells Like Teen Spirit". However, a live version recorded in 1991 appeared on the live album From the Muddy...
" – 3:43 - "Lounge Act" – 2:36
- "Stay Away" – 3:32
- "On a PlainOn a Plain"On a Plain" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana. It is the eleventh song on their major label debut, Nevermind .-History:...
" – 3:16 - "Something in the Way" – 3:50
"Endless, Nameless" – 6:44 (hidden trackHidden trackIn the field of recorded music, a hidden track is a piece of music that has been placed on a CD, audio cassette, vinyl record or other recorded medium in such a way as to avoid detection by the casual listener...
on some copies of the CD)
"Territorial Pissings" begins with Krist Novoselic singing the chorus of "Get Together" (written by Chet Powers
Chet Powers
Chester William Powers, Jr. was an American singer-songwriter, and a member of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. He was also known by the stage name "Dino Valenti" and, as a songwriter, as Jesse Oris Farrow...
) out of tune.
2011 Deluxe Edition
CD oneOriginal Album (remastered) + B-sides
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) – 5:02
- "In Bloom" – 4:15
- "Come as You Are" – 3:39
- "Breed" – 3:04
- "Lithium" – 4:17
- "Polly" – 2:57
- "Territorial Pissings" – 2:23
- "Drain You" – 3:44
- "Lounge Act" – 2:37
- "Stay Away" – 3:32
- "On a Plain" – 3:16
- "Something in the Way" – 3:50
"Endless, Nameless" – 6:44 - "Even in His Youth" ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" single B-side) – 3:04
- "AneurysmAneurysm (song)"Aneurysm" is a song by the American grunge band, Nirvana.-Studio versions:*"Aneurysm" was first recorded in the studio on January 1, 1991, by Craig Montgomery at the Music Source in Seattle, Washington. This version was first released as a B-side on the "Smells Like Teen Spirit" single later in...
" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) ("Smells Like Teen Spirit" single B-side) – 4:46 - "Curmudgeon" ("Lithium" single B-side) – 2:59
- "D-7Is This Real?Is This Real? is the 1980 debut album of the punk rock band the Wipers. It was digitally remastered by Greg Sage in 2001, and released as a part of the Wipers Box Set, with the songs in a slightly different order, along with some previously unreleased tracks.The album was later re-issued on Sub Pop...
" (Greg SageGreg SageGreg Sage was the principal songwriter, guitarist, and vocalist for the influential Portland, Oregon-based punk rock band Wipers. Greg Sage's first recording was on the pro-wrestler Beauregarde's full length album, released in 1971 . He met Beauregarde, recorded and played with him when he was only...
) ("Lithium" single B-side) – 3:46- Recorded live at the Paramount TheatreParamount Theatre (Seattle, Washington)The Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington is a 2,807-seat performing arts venue at 9th Avenue and Pine Street in Downtown Seattle in the United States of America. The theater originally opened March 1, 1928 as the Seattle Theatre with 3,000 seats, the theater was placed on the National Register...
; SeattleSeattle, WashingtonSeattle is the county seat of King County, Washington. With 608,660 residents as of the 2010 Census, Seattle is the largest city in the Northwestern United States. The Seattle metropolitan area of about 3.4 million inhabitants is the 15th largest metropolitan area in the country...
, Washington, October 31, 1991
- Recorded live at the Paramount Theatre
- "Been a Son" ("Lithium" single B-side) – 2:31
- "School" ("Come as You Are" single B-side) – 2:34
- "Drain You" ("Come as You Are" single B-side) – 3:53
- Recorded live at the O'Brien Pavilion; Del MarDel Mar, CaliforniaDel Mar is an upscale beach town in San Diego County, California. The population was 4,161 at the 2010 census, down from 4,389 at the 2000 census. The San Diego County Fair is hosted on the Del Mar Fairgrounds every summer. Del Mar is Spanish for "of the sea" or "by the sea", because it is located...
, CaliforniaCaliforniaCalifornia is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
, December 28, 1991
- Recorded live at the O'Brien Pavilion; Del Mar
- "SliverSliver (song)"Sliver" is a song by American grunge band Nirvana. It was originally released as a non-album single in 1990 by Sub Pop. DGC re-released the song to radio to support the release of the rarities compilation album Incesticide in 1992....
" ("In Bloom" single B-side) – 2:04 - "Polly" ("In Bloom" single B-side) – 2:47
CD two
The Smart Studio Sessions, The Boombox Rehearsals, BBC Sessions
- Smart StudiosSmart StudiosSmart Studios was a recording studio located at 1254 E Washington Ave in Madison, Wisconsin. It was set up in 1983 by Butch Vig and Steve Marker to produce local bands....
sessions, MadisonMadison, WisconsinMadison is the capital of the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Dane County. It is also home to the University of Wisconsin–Madison....
, WisconsinWisconsinWisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, April 2–6, 1990
- "In Bloom" – 4:32
- "Immodium (Breed)" – 3:15
- "Lithium" – 4:32
- "Polly" – 2:59
- "Pay to Play" – 3:29
- "Here She Comes NowHere She Comes Now/Venus in Furs"Here She Comes Now"/"Venus in Furs" is a split single from the American rock bands Nirvana and The Melvins. It was released in 1991 and includes the songs "Here She Comes Now" performed by Nirvana, and "Venus in Furs" performed by The Melvins...
" (John CaleJohn CaleJohn Davies Cale, OBE is a Welsh musician, composer, singer-songwriter and record producer who was a founding member of the experimental rock band The Velvet Underground....
, Sterling MorrisonSterling MorrisonHolmes Sterling Morrison, Jr. was one of the founding members of the rock group The Velvet Underground, usually playing electric guitar, occasionally bass guitar, and singing backing vocals.-Biography:...
, Lou ReedLou ReedLewis Allan "Lou" Reed is an American rock musician, songwriter, and photographer. He is best known as guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter of The Velvet Underground, and for his successful solo career, which has spanned several decades...
, Maureen TuckerMaureen TuckerMaureen Ann "Moe" Tucker is a musician best known for having been the drummer for the rock group The Velvet Underground.- The Velvet Underground :...
) – 5:02 - "Dive" (Cobain, Novoselic) – 3:56
- "SappySappy"Sappy" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It was first released as a hidden track on the 1993 AIDS-benefit compilation album No Alternative. At the time the song was credited by the title "Verse Chorus Verse", which happens to be the title of a different Nirvana song...
" – 3:37- Boombox rehearsals demoDemo (music)A demo version or demo of a song is one recorded for reference rather than for release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas on tape or disc, and provide an example of those ideas to record labels, producers or other artists...
session, TacomaTacoma, WashingtonTacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
, Washington, March 1991
- Boombox rehearsals demo
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) – 5:40
- "Verse Chorus Verse" – 3:15
- "Territorial Pissings" – 2:12
- "Lounge Act" – 2:38
- "Come as You Are" – 4:13
- "Old Age" – 4:22
- "Something in the Way" – 5:31
- "On a Plain" – 3:22
- From a John PeelJohn PeelJohn Robert Parker Ravenscroft, OBE , known professionally as John Peel, was an English disc jockey, radio presenter, record producer and journalist. He was the longest-serving of the original BBC Radio 1 DJs, broadcasting regularly from 1967 until his death in 2004...
radio session, Maida Vale StudiosMaida Vale StudiosMaida Vale Studios is a complex of seven BBC studios on Delaware Road, Maida Vale, London.It has been used to record thousands of classical music, popular music and drama sessions for BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 4 from 1946 to the present...
; LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, EnglandEnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
, September 3, 1991
- From a John Peel
- "Drain You" – 4:04
- From a Mark GoodierMark Goodier-Early career:Mark Goodier was born in Rhodesia . His family moved to the UK when he was a child, eventually settling in Scotland. He was educated at George Heriot's School, in Edinburgh. He became a mobile DJ in Edinburgh and then joined local station Radio Forth at the age of 19...
radio session, Maida Vale Studios; London, England, November 9, 1991
- From a Mark Goodier
- "Something in the Way" – 3:24
Super Deluxe Edition
CD threeThe Devonshire Mixes
- Rough mixes by producer Butch VigButch VigButch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
, Devonshire Studios; Los AngelesLos ÁngelesLos Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California, May 20–28, 1991
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) – 5:02
- "In Bloom" – 4:16
- "Come as You Are" – 3:41
- "Breed" – 3:04
- "Lithium" – 4:18
- "Territorial Pissings" – 2:14
- "Drain You" – 3:41
- "Lounge Act" – 2:37
- "Stay Away" – 3:28
- "On a Plain" – 3:28
- "Something in the Way" – 3:56
CD four
Live at the Paramount
Live at the Paramount (video)
Live at the Paramount is a live video by the grunge band Nirvana released in 2011. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray Disc as part of the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind album. It showcases a live performance at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle from October 31, 1991. The footage is taken...
- Recorded live at the Paramount Theatre; Seattle, Washington, October 31, 1991
- "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" (Eugene KellyEugene KellyEugene Kelly is a Scottish musician who is a member of the group The Vaselines, a founding member of the now disbanded Eugenius and has had a number of solo releases....
, Frances McKeeFrances McKeeFrances McKee is a singer and songwriter known best for her work in the Scottish indie band The Vaselines.The Vaselines formed in Glasgow, Scotland in 1986. Following the release of two EPs, Son of a Gun and Dying for It, the first and only full length album, Dum-Dum, in 1989, the band split up...
) – 3:30 - "Aneurysm" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) – 4:50
- "Drain You" – 3:47
- "School" – 2:52
- "Floyd the Barber" – 2:27
- "Smells Like Teen Spirit" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) – 4:46
- "About a Girl" – 3:13
- "Polly" – 3:04
- "Breed" – 3:11
- "Sliver" – 2:11
- "Love BuzzLove Buzz-Shocking Blue:"Love Buzz" is a song written by Robbie van Leeuwen of Dutch rock band Shocking Blue.-Nirvana:The American grunge band Nirvana recorded a cover version of the song for its 1988 debut single, released on Sub Pop in the US. It was the first single in the Sub Pop Singles club. A...
" (Robbie van LeeuwenRobbie van LeeuwenRobbie van Leeuwen is a Dutch musician who used to be the guitarist, sitarist, background vocalist and main songwriter for the Dutch bands The Motions, Shocking Blue and Galaxy-Lin. His most well-known compositions are Shocking Blue's most famous songs, Venus, which was an American no...
) – 3:34 - "Lithium" – 4:38
- "Been a Son" – 2:16
- "Negative Creep" – 2:44
- "On a Plain" – 3:04
- "BlewBlew (EP)"Blew" is the title of a song and EP released by the American grunge band Nirvana.-Song:"Blew" was written in 1988 by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain. The song was recorded in December of 1988 and initially appeared as the first track on Nirvana's 1989 debut album Bleach.-Release:Blew was released in...
" – 4:09 - "Rape MeRape Me"Rape Me" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by frontman Kurt Cobain. The song was released as the second single from Nirvana's third album In Utero in 1993, packaged as a double A-side along with "All Apologies"...
" – 3:00 - "Territorial Pissings" – 2:56
- "Endless, Nameless" – 6:25
DVD
Personnel
Nirvana- Kurt CobainKurt CobainKurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
(credited for the "Monkey Photo" as Kurdt Kobain) – lead vocals, guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, acoustic guitarAcoustic guitarAn acoustic guitar is a guitar that uses only an acoustic sound board. The air in this cavity resonates with the vibrational modes of the string and at low frequencies, which depend on the size of the box, the chamber acts like a Helmholtz resonator, increasing or decreasing the volume of the sound...
("Polly", "Something in the Way"), backing vocals, photographyPhotographyPhotography is the art, science and practice of creating durable images by recording light or other electromagnetic radiation, either electronically by means of an image sensor or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film... - Krist NovoselicKrist NovoselicKrist Anthony Novoselic II is a Croatian-American rock musician, best known for being the bassist and co-founder of the grunge band Nirvana. After Nirvana ended, Novoselic formed Sweet 75 and then Eyes Adrift, releasing one album with each band...
(credited as Chris Novoselic) – bassElectric BassElectric bass can mean:*Electric upright bass, the electric version of a double bass*Electric bass guitar*Bass synthesizer*Big Mouth Billy Bass, a battery-powered singing fish...
, voice (intro "Territorial Pissings") - Dave GrohlDave GrohlDavid Eric "Dave" Grohl is an American rock musician, multi-instrumentalist, and singer-songwriter who is the lead vocalist, guitarist, and primary songwriter for Foo Fighters; the former drummer for Nirvana and Scream; and the current drummer for Them Crooked Vultures...
– drumsDrum kitA drum kit is a collection of drums, cymbals and often other percussion instruments, such as cowbells, wood blocks, triangles, chimes, or tambourines, arranged for convenient playing by a single person ....
, backing vocals
Additional musicians
- Chad ChanningChad ChanningChad Channing is an American musician who is best known for being the drummer of the band Nirvana from 1988 until 1990, during which time they recorded and released their debut album Bleach...
– cymbalCymbalCymbals are a common percussion instrument. Cymbals consist of thin, normally round plates of various alloys; see cymbal making for a discussion of their manufacture. The greater majority of cymbals are of indefinite pitch, although small disc-shaped cymbals based on ancient designs sound a...
s on "Polly" (uncredited) - Kirk Canning – celloCelloThe cello is a bowed string instrument with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is a member of the violin family of musical instruments, which also includes the violin, viola, and double bass. Old forms of the instrument in the Baroque era are baryton and viol .A person who plays a cello is...
on "Something in the Way"
Technical staff and artwork
- Craig Doubet – assistant engineeringAudio engineeringAn audio engineer, also called audio technician, audio technologist or sound technician, is a specialist in a skilled trade that deals with the use of machinery and equipment for the recording, mixing and reproduction of sounds. The field draws on many artistic and vocational areas, including...
, mixingAudio mixing (recorded music)In audio recording, audio mixing is the process by which multiple recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels, most commonly two-channel stereo. In the process, the source signals' level, frequency content, dynamics, and panoramic position are manipulated and effects such as reverb may... - Spencer Elden – infant in cover photo
- Robert Fisher – artwork, art direction, design, cover design
- Michael LavineMichael LavineMichael Lavine is a portrait photographer based in New York City. He grew up in Denver, Colorado, and graduated from Denver's South High School in 1981....
– photography - Jeff Sheehan – assistant engineer
- Butch VigButch VigButch Vig is an American musician and record producer, best known internationally as the drummer of the Madison, Wisconsin-based alternative rock band Garbage and the producer of multi-platinum selling album Nevermind by Nirvana....
– co-producer, engineer - Andy WallaceAndy Wallace (producer)Andy Wallace is a Grammy Award-winning music studio engineer with a long track record of successful productions, beginning with the 1986 production of the Run-DMC/Aerosmith collaboration on "Walk This Way" with Rick Rubin...
– mixing - Howie WeinbergHowie WeinbergHowie Weinberg is a music mastering engineer who has worked with numerous bands.- Career :He has worked at Masterdisk, New York City, since 1977...
– masteringAudio masteringMastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced... - Kirk Weddle – cover photo
- Bob LudwigBob LudwigBob Ludwig is an American mastering engineer.He is a well known and respected figure within the music industry. His name is credited on the covers of albums released across the world, and he has won numerous awards....
- mastering on 20th Anniversary Edition
Chart positions
| Charts (1992) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Australian Albums Chart ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
2 |
| Austrian Albums Chart | 2 |
| Canadian RPM RPM (magazine) RPM was a Canadian music industry publication that featured song and album charts for Canada. The publication was founded by Walt Grealis in February 1964, supported through its existence by record label owner Stan Klees. RPM ceased publication in November 2000.RPM stood for "Records, Promotion,... Albums Chart |
1 |
| Dutch Albums Chart | 3 |
| German Albums Chart Media Control Charts The official music charts in Germany are gathered and published by the company Media Control GfK International on behalf of Bundesverband Musikindustrie... |
3 |
| Hungarian Albums Chart Mahasz Mahasz is the Hungarian music industry association, founded in 1992. Mahasz hands out the Hungarian Music Awards and maintains the music charts for Hungary.... |
12 |
| New Zealand Albums Chart Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... |
2 |
| Norwegian VG-lista VG-lista VG-listen is a Norwegian record chart. It is weekly presented in the newspaper VG and the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation program Topp 20. It is considered the primary Norwegian record chart, charting albums and singles from countries and continent around the world. The data is collected by... |
2 |
| Swedish Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan Sverigetopplistan, earlier known as Topplistan and Hitlistan and other names, is since October 2007 the Swedish national record chart, based on sales data from Swedish Recording Industry Association .... |
1 |
| Swiss Albums Top 100 Swiss Music Charts The Swiss Music Charts are Switzerland's main music sales charts. The charts are a record of the highest-selling singles and albums in various genres in Switzerland.The Swiss Charts include:* Singles Top 75... |
2 |
| 7 | |
| Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
1 |
| Chart (2011) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| 5 | |
| 1 | |
| 5 | |
| 5 | |
| Belgian Albums Chart (WA) Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
7 |
| Belgian Albums Chart (VL) Ultratop Ultratop is an organization which generates and publishes the official record charts in Belgium, and it is also the name of most of those charts... |
14 |
| Denmark Albums Chart | 16 |
| Italian Albums Chart Federation of the Italian Music Industry The Federation of the Italian Music Industry is an umbrella organization that keeps track of virtually all aspects of the music recording industry in Italy.... |
20 |
| Mexican Albums Chart | 43 |
| Finland Albums Chart | 41 |
| Spanish Albums Chart | 12 |
| French Albums Chart | 5 |
End of decade charts
| Chart (1990–1999) | Position |
|---|---|
| U.S. Billboard 200 | 32 |
Certifications
See also
- Nevermind It's an InterviewNevermind It's an InterviewNevermind It's an Interview is the only officially released interview CD of American grunge band Nirvana. Released in limited-edition form worldwide in 1992 by Geffen Records, written, produced and engineered at WFNX Boston by Kurt St. Thomas and Troy Smith . The original interview sessions were...
- Classic Albums: Nirvana – Nevermind
- List of best-selling albums worldwide
- List of best-selling albums in the United States
- List of Peel sessions
External links
- Nevermind at GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Music