Songoftheday 9/22/19 - We passed upon the stair we spoke of was and when, although I wasn't there he said I was his friend...
from the album MTV Unplugged In New York (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #39
Weeks in the Airplay Top-40: 1
Today's song of the day comes from the alternative hard rock band Nirvana, who had met its end as a group when lead singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain ended his life in April of 1994. Later that year, the trio of Cobain, Dave Grohl, and Krist Novoselic's appearance on MTV's Unplugged was released on record, and an acoustic version of one of their earlier songs, "About A Girl", reached the top-40 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart in November of 1994. A second song from the set promoted to radio was a cover of David Bowie's 1970 album title track "The Man Who Sold The World". Bowie didn't release it as a proper single, but three years later included the eerie track as the B-side to his "Life On Mars" single in the UK and "Space Oddity" in America...
Cobain revered the Bowie album, and when it was time to do the Unplugged gig, he included the song in the setlist. It was put out as the second radio offering from the album, which had already gone to #1...
While Nirvana's acoustic version of "The Man Who Sold The World" slipped on to the airplay component of Billboard magazine's pop chart at #39 in March of 1993, since it was not available as a single, the song wasn't able to reach the proper Hot 100. The track reached both the Mainstream (#12) and Modern Rock (#6) charts. A fourth radio offering, "Lake Of Fire", gave Nirvana another bang in the bank, brought them up to #22 on the Mainstream Rock radio Liz...
A second live album from Nirvana was released in 1996, named From The Banks of the Bloody Wishkah. From that record the song "Aneurysm" (The "B-Side" of "Smells Like Teen Spirit") was promoted to rock radio, and peaked on both the Mainstream (#11) and Alternative (#13) airplay lists.
Dave Grohl would go on and formed the band Foo Fighters, who statistically outshined Nirvana on he airwaves, while Novoselic would pursue his political asperations. Despite their short-lived recording career, the legacy of Nirvana's impact on rock music is undeniable.
In 2002, after a spat of lawsuits between Dave and Krist with Cobain's widow Courtney Love that finally were sorted, a compilation Nirvana appeared with the last song they band recorded together, "You Know You're Right", putting them back onto the pop Hot 100 at #45. The trio were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2014.
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While David Bowie didn't release "The Man Who Sold The World" as a proper single, he did produce a version from pop singer Lulu (of "To Sir With Love") fame that went to #3 on the British singles chart in 1974, while also making the top ten in Ireland (#8), New Zealand (#8), and the Netherlands (#10)...
and here's Nirvana on their Live and Loud concert...
and lastly in 2016 to honor the deceased Bowie, Beck and Foo Fighters' Pat Smear joined Grohl and Novoselic to perform the song pre-show...
Up tomorrow: Piano diva has faith.
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