Smells Like Teen Spirit · Nirvana
Nirvana's biggest hit is named after a deodorant
Kurt Cobain didn't know that the title of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was a deodorant until months after the song came out.
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Transcript
Nirvana's biggest hit is named after a deodorant, and Kurt Cobain had no idea.
A friend, Kathleen Hanna, wrote on his wall in marker: Kurt smells like Teen Spirit.
It was a joke about the deodorant. Kurt read it as a revolutionary slogan.
He said he only found out months after the song came out.
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The title comes from a phrase written by Kathleen Hanna, singer of the riot grrrl band Bikini Kill: "Kurt smells like Teen Spirit." Hanna and Tobi Vail, Cobain's then-girlfriend, had found Teen Spirit deodorant in a grocery store earlier that day, thought the name was funny and joked that various things "smelled like Teen Spirit". Hanna later wrote the phrase in marker on Cobain's wall.
Cobain said he was unaware of the deodorant until months after the single was released, and had interpreted the phrase as a revolutionary slogan, because they had been discussing anarchism and punk rock.
Cobain described the song as an attempt to write "the ultimate pop song", inspired by the soft-and-loud dynamics of the Pixies. When he first presented it, it was just the main riff and the chorus melody. Bassist Krist Novoselic called the riff ridiculous, so Cobain made the band play it for an hour and a half.
Nirvana recorded the basic track at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in May 1991, in three takes, and used the second. Cobain recorded only three vocal takes.
