10 Things You Didn’t Know Nirvana’s “Nevermind”

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Well 2 days ago the Wild Heart missed a major, and I mean MAJOR album birthday: as of September 24th, 2011 it was 20 years ago to the date that grunge-heads everywhere went insane with the release of Nevermind by Nirvana. This is considered the quintessential, if not defining, album of grunge music.

However, there’s probably much either you did or didn’t know about this masterpiece. So here it is folks, the 10 things you probably didn’t know about Nevermind by Nirvana.

1. The album’s 4th track, Breed, was originally called “Immodium.”
2. Upon their signing to Geffen records, a number of producers for the album were suggested, mostly high-end ones. Nirvana, however, still wanted Butch Vig. Novoselic said 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. However, the band held out for Vig because they felt comfortable collaborating with him.
3. Most of the album was recorded in Van Nuys, CA. To help pay for gas money, Nirvana performed a show to get gas money. At that show they debuted a new song that would essentially become their signature hit: Smells Like Teen Spirit.
4. American record stores received an initial shipment of 46,251 copies. The UK received 35,000 copies where Bleach had been successful.
5. Nirvana wanted Nevermind to sound very heavy like a Slayer record. Therefore during the mixing process they chose Slayer’s producer, Andy Wallace, to oversee the mixing and mastering of the album.
6. Nevermind was originally titled Sheep.
7. The parents of Spencer Eldin, the baby pictured on the album cover, were paid $200. Since the picture contained the child absolutely nude, there was plans to have a censored album cover. However, lead singer Kurt Cobain protested.
8. Smells Like Teen Spirit was not purposely named after the women’s deodorant. It was named after a female friend of Cobain’s sprawled “Kurt smells like teen spirit” on his wall in his bedroom. Coincidentally, Cobain’s then-girlfriend Tobi Vail, wore the deodorant.
9. 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.
10. Cobain was still working on the album’s lyrics during the recording of Nevermind. Additionally, Cobain’s phrasing on the album is often hard to get.

Kerrang magazine article