Liner Notes · No. 009
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana: the B-side
Quick hall pass: the song that ended hair metal went on to open a Marvel movie, get the "Weird Al" treatment and turn up in a Paul Anka swing set. Here's the B-side.
📰 FAST FACTS
- Nirvana's Reading 1992 set was officially released as Live at Reading on November 3, 2009. (uDiscover Music)
- Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: #9 in 2004, #5 in 2021. (Rolling Stone)
- Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction: April 10, 2014, first year of eligibility. (The Current)
On this record
TRACK 1 · The cameo
Black Widow slowed it down. Weird Al sped it up.
Marvel opened Black Widow with a slowed 2015 cover, Weird Al parodied it with Cobain's blessing, and Rolling Stone ranks it #5 ever.
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The setup: Marvel's Black Widow (2021) opens with a slowed, dramatic cover of the song over its opening-credits montage, credited to Think Up Anger featuring Malia J. She first released it in 2015. Marvel called her in 2020. Five years after you upload a cover, a superhero studio rings. That's the dream, and it happens to nobody.
The parody: In April 1992, "Weird Al" Yankovic put out "Smells Like Nirvana" on Off the Deep End: a song about nobody understanding the lyrics, with a near shot-for-shot copy of the video. Cobain gave it his blessing, and later said the parody was when he knew he'd made it. Not the platinum records. Not the magazine covers. The accordion guy.
The verdict: Rolling Stone ranked it #5 on its 2021 list of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, up from #9 in 2004. It climbed four spots in 17 years. Your 1991 flannel did not age that well.
Everybody knows the song. Almost nobody knew what the title meant. Quiz time.
What was "Teen Spirit" before it was a song?
No Googling. We'll know.
That's Side A. Flip the tape.
Side B is where it gets weird:
- The TV show that made them fake it, the Reading set Kerrang! ranks #1, and two very different guest singers.
- Tori Amos at the piano, Paul Anka in swing, and Patti Smith with a banjo.
- Nirvana's 2026 Video Vanguard night, 35 years after the gym.
Free, every Tuesday. One song, the story you never heard, and a 10-minute hall pass from the doomscroll. Already subscribed? Enter your email to unlock.
▶ SIDE B
TRACK 2 · The live one
The live ones, from a TV croon to a Rock Hall
A rough-draft first gig, a mock-Morrissey croon on Top of the Pops, legendary Reading 1992, then Rock Hall and SNL tributes.
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The warm-up: That first gig at Seattle's OK Hotel in April 1991 had Bikini Kill on the bill too, and the lyrics were still different from the record. Imagine paying for a ticket and getting the rough draft of the decade.
The fake-out: In late November 1991, the BBC's Top of the Pops told the band to perform over a pre-recorded track. So Cobain sang it in a slow, lounge-style croon he later said was imitating Morrissey, while Krist Novoselic swung his bass around like a hammer thrower. The BBC wanted miming. It got performance art. The single climbed into the UK Top 10 soon after.
The legend: August 30, 1992, Reading Festival, England. Kerrang! ranked it #1 in its "100 Gigs That Shook the World." If you were there, you have told everyone. Repeatedly.
The tributes: On April 10, 2014, Nirvana went into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at Barclays Center in Brooklyn, in their first year of eligibility, and Joan Jett sang it with Dave Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear. In February 2025, at SNL's 50th-anniversary Homecoming Concert at Radio City Music Hall, Adam Sandler introduced "Post Nirvana," and Post Malone sang it with the same three. Somewhere, a 1991 critic is still trying to explain Post Malone to his editor.
TRACK 3 · Cover watch
Piano, swing and a banjo walk into a grunge bar
Tori Amos on piano, Paul Anka in swing, Patti Smith with a banjo. Grunge survived every one of them.
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Turns out the loudest song of 1991 works in genres that have never owned a distortion pedal. Some of them even meant it:
- 1992 · Tori Amos. A solo piano version on the B-side of her "Crucify" single, one of the earliest covers. Cobain reportedly called it a "great breakfast cereal version." Part of a balanced breakfast.
- 1992 · "Weird Al" Yankovic, "Smells Like Nirvana." The video was nominated for Best Male Video at the 1992 VMAs. An accordion player, up for a VMA against men with real hair budgets.
- 2005 · Paul Anka. A swing-band version on his album Rock Swings, which he also played on Late Show with David Letterman. Grunge in a tuxedo. Your parents finally got it.
- 2007 · Patti Smith. An acoustic take with banjo and violin on her covers album Twelve, with a verse of her own poetry added in the middle. Only Patti Smith gets to add a verse to this song and walk away clean.
- 2015 · Malia J. The slow version that Marvel picked up six years later for Black Widow (see Track 1).
▶ WATCH THE CONTENDERS
Battle of the versions: which "Smells Like Teen Spirit" wins?
Cast your vote. Results in the next issue. Choose carefully: we're judging you.
TRACK 4 · Where are they now
Where Nirvana is now
Kurt Cobain died in 1994. Grohl, Novoselic and Smear reunited for a 2025 wildfire benefit and accepted MTV's Video Vanguard Award in 2026.
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Kurt Cobain died in April 1994, at 27.
On September 27, 2026, Nirvana received MTV's Video Vanguard Award at the VMAs, at the Peacock Theater in Los Angeles. Chuck D presented. Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear accepted, and Novoselic gave the speech, crediting Cobain with the vision behind the band's videos. MTV announced the award on September 9, the anniversary of the band's first VMAs performance in 1992. Blabbermouth reports Nirvana is the ninth band to receive it.
The surprise: On January 30, 2025, the three reunited at the FireAid wildfire benefit at the Kia Forum, their first show together since 2018, with St. Vincent, Kim Gordon, Joan Jett and Violet Grohl singing. They skipped "Teen Spirit" that night. Bold move, playing a Nirvana set without the one everyone came for.
The anniversary: Nevermind turned 35 on September 24, 2026. No official 35th-anniversary reissue has turned up; the last big one was the 30th-anniversary Super Deluxe edition in November 2021. Plenty of tribute bands celebrated, though. Flannel sales held steady.
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