Click here: to donate by Credit Card
Or here: to donate by PayPal
Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794
Thank you very much and God bless you.
Posted on 11/13/2025 3:32:22 PM PST by nickcarraway
The band’s 1993 Modern Rock chart-topper has surpassed one billion plays on the streaming platform.
“Heart-Shaped Box” was one of Nirvana’s biggest hits in their heyday, and decades later it continues to be one of the band’s most popular songs. The 1993 single just joined the Spotify Billions Club by surpassing one billion streams on the platform. It’s Nirvana’s third track to cross that threshold following “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and “Come As You Are.”
Upon its release in 1993, “Heart-Shaped Box” was the lead single from Nirvana’s third album, In Utero. The album was the follow-up to the trio’s game-changing 1991 major-label debut Nevermind, which made Nirvana one of the most popular and influential musical acts in America and did more than any other album to spark an alternative rock explosion within the music industry.
Recorded at Minnesota’s Pachyderm Studios with recording engineer Steve Albini, In Utero found the Nirvana frontman and his bandmates leaning into their more aggressive and esoteric influences, seemingly at the expense of commercial appeal. But a large portion of the Nevermind audience flocked to In Utero anyway, with the album attaining Platinum status by year’s end and spinning off multiple hit singles. “Heart-Shaped Box” and its follow-up single “All Apologies” both became staples of MTV and alternative rock radio, and they both climbed to the top of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart.
Cobain gave multiple stories about the subject matter of “Heart-Shaped Box,” such as telling Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad it was about children with terminal cancer. Such depressing subject matter, paired with gruesome riffs and merciless production, does not sound like the formula for a chart-topping hit. But as Stereogum put it in a retrospective years later, “That’s the magic of Nirvana. Whether or not they meant to do it, they took lots of heavy, heady ideas and presented them in ways that sounded great on the radio.”
|
|
Click here: to donate by Credit Card Or here: to donate by PayPal Or by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794 Thank you very much and God bless you. |
Sometimes people can't say the truth about their spouse, or maybe they can't even acknowledge it to themselves. I guess, in such a case, it helps to be a musician.
Nirvana sucked.
I hate grunge.
Lana Del Rey’s cover
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPIJk0MKSWM
Infinitely GRATEFUL that my boys were still in Elementary School when this stuff was popular.
But, I am a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers, White Stripes and John Mayer, thanks to their teen years. ;)
At the time and ever moreso now, the song sounded like the end of an era. It was obvious that the way kurt was going was unsustainable. Wasn’t shocked to hear later of his suicide attempt and then completion. There was very little noteworthy in music after Nirvana. Gen X was the last wave of creators. Not as good as 60-70s boomer rock,but they did leave their mark.
My musical tastes stopped at 1981, after my tour in Germany. It didn’t change for nearly 40 years, when I attended Clapton’s Crossroads Festival in 2019. That’s when I saw Tedeschi Trucks perform. However, they covered a Derek and the Dominos song, Keep on Growing.
One of the most overrated songs ever, they play the crap out of this song on every FM and streaming rock station. I can’t change the station fast enough as soon as I hear the first note hit my car speakers.
Courtney Love fan?
In Utero is one of the craziest albums you could ever listen to. Kurt Cobain basically told the studio to kiss his ass and proceeded to do exactly the opposite of what the studio wanted out of Nirvana at that time.
That’s why it’s one of the most raw sounding albums of all time, leaning on acoustics and some absolutely nonsensical lyrics, by Kurt’s own admission. If you listen to some of the songs and feel like it doesn’t make any sense, that’s the point, it was jibberish.
Kurt Cobain was anti-social, yes, and even moreso anti-establishment, which is what Grunge Rock was all about. That’s part of why it only lasted about 4 years, you can only buck the system so much before people fall back into comfort zones, so people gradually started engaging with post-grunge preppy bands like Creed.
Agree
This song is the most brutal takedown of a spouse I can remember.
Nope, but I had a friend who did.
Yeah...”Radio Friendly Unit Shifter.” Anything but, but what a glorious racket.
I was never a Nirvana fan but you can really feel the pain in this song which I think makes it good art. That and the MTv Unplugged version of “The Man Who Sold The World” is one of the few covers I like better than the original.
Nirvana was like The Sex Pistols. The band that starts the genre by being the band that has musicians saying “Hell, even I could do better than that”.
“Courtney Love fan?”
At least she was honest about being a “Hole”
but she was a nasty piece of work and her fingerprints were all over his death.
At his Peak — live remastered MTV Unplugged in New York
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOTkCgkxqyg
Well, she was certifiable and he wasn’t husband/father material either, so...
But enough about MY past marriage, LOL!
I was a ‘Teenager’ starting in 1973. Had SCADS of great music all the while I was growing up...and also a lot of schlock, LOL! I also survived DISCO but there is nothing that motivates me through household chores like Disco. Ever Vacuumed to Disco? Cleaned a toilet? It’s awesome, LOL!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billboard_Year-End_Hot_100_singles_of_1973
Still a fave: ‘Stuck in the Middle with You’ (Jerry Rafferty!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofs_GyQXJ9k
I kind of lost interest in most popular music about 1986, with a few months of rekindled interest occasionally since then.
Sometimes I know a song when I hear it but not from the title. I figured maybe I knew this one so gave it a listen.
Nop.
It’s “different” being old and not caring. I used to care SO MUCH about popular music but it’s all concentrated in 1955-1985, pretty much.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.