Nirvana: The Misunderstanding Behind “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and How Nevermind Beat Michael Jackson
The title of the song that changed rock was a misunderstanding. Kathleen Hanna, the singer of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill, wrote “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on Kurt Cobain’s wall. She and Tobi Vail, Cobain’s girlfriend at the time, had found a deodorant called Teen Spirit in a grocery store that day and thought the name was funny. Cobain, who had been talking with them about anarchism and punk rock, took it for a revolutionary slogan, and he said he did not learn about the deodorant until months after the single came out.
Nirvana had formed in Aberdeen, Washington, in 1987. Singer and guitarist Kurt Cobain and bassist Krist Novoselic founded it, went through a series of drummers and, in 1990, found Dave Grohl.
Nevermind, their second studio album, was released on 24 September 1991 by DGC Records. Produced by Butch Vig, it was recorded in May and June 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, and Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, and it was the first Nirvana album with Grohl on drums. It sounded more polished and radio-friendly than their earlier work.
On 11 January 1992 Nevermind became Nirvana’s first number-one album, replacing Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at the top of the Billboard chart. By then it was selling about 300,000 copies a week.
The cover is just as famous. The band wanted a photo of a swimming baby, but its owner asked $7,500 a year for it, so photographer Kirk Weddle was sent to a pool for babies instead. Five shots came out, and the band chose the image of four-month-old Spencer Elden, the son of a friend of Weddle’s.
Nevermind has sold more than 30 million copies worldwide and was certified 13 times platinum in the United States in 2024. In 2004 the Library of Congress added it to the National Recording Registry.
Nirvana has its own station in the Exclusive collection of Kalisha. Open the radio and press play.
— Kalisha 🎧
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