Nirvana was one of the most influential bands of the ’90s. While they didn’t start grunge, they helped bring the Seattle Sound to the masses. The release of their sophomore album Nevermind saw them skyrocket to new heights of fame. Songs like “Polly,” “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are” helped ensure that the album was in the hands of seemingly every teen and young adult in the country. Then, in 1992, they introduced themselves to a wider audience with a performance on Saturday Night Live.
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Nirvana released “Smells Like Teen Spirit” in September 1991 as the lead single from Nevermind. A few short months later, they were on national television. The band appeared on the show for the first time on January 11, 1992. That night, Rob Morrow hosted the show and they were the musical guests. Watch them make their SNL debut with their biggest hit below.
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Nirvana would return to the Saturday Night Live stage later in the evening to perform the album track “Territorial Pissings.” They came back to SNL in 1994 to support their album In Utero with guest guitarist Pat Smear.
The Story Behind Nirvana’s Biggest Hit
Written by Kurt Cobain, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was the biggest hit Nirvana ever released. The single went to No. 6 on the Billboard Hot 100 and topped charts in Belgium, France, and New Zealand.
According to Songfacts, The song came together during a jam session. “I was trying to write the ultimate pop songs,” Cobain said of the single. “I was basically trying to rip off The Pixies.”
Bikini Kill lead singer Kathleen Hanna gave Cobain the idea for the song. The pair spent an evening putting up graffiti in Seattle and went back to Cobain’s place to drink. “We ended up in Kurt’s apartment and I smashed up a bunch of sh*t. I took out a Sharpie marker and I wrote all over his bedroom wall–it was a rental so it was really kind of lame that I did that,” Hanna recalled.
She famously wrote “Kurt smells like Teen Spirit” on his wall. Cobain used to date Hanna’s Bikini Kill bandmate Tobi Vail who wore Teen Spirit deodorant. Hanna meant that Cobain was marked with her bandmate’s scent. However, he thought she was complimenting him on his rebellious attitude.
Six months later, Cobain called Hanna to ask if he could use what she wrote on his wall in a song. “I thought how is he going to use ‘Kurt smells like Teen Spirit’ as a lyric?” Hanna recalled.
At the time, Cobain didn’t know Teen Spirit was a deodorant marketed to teen girls. He said he wrote the song because he was “disgusted with my generation’s apathy, and my own apathy and spinelessness.”
Featured Image by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc
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