Robbed hit of the week 10/28/19: Nine Inch Nails' "Hurt"...
from the album The Downward Spiral (1994)
Billboard Hot 100 peak: ineligible to chart
Billboard Hot 100 Airplay peak: #54
This week's "robbed hit" comes from Trent Reznor's music project Nine Inch Nails, who had almost broken through to what's considered mainstream with the single "Closer" from his album The Downward Spiral. With help from massive MTV love, the single stopped one notch short of the American top-40 in the fall of 1994. After the song "Piggy" from the record climbed to #20 on Billboard magazine's Modern Rock chart, another cut from that album was promoted and started to get the same buzz around it as "Closer" did. "Hurt", written and produced by Reznor, was a stark and emotionally bare take on pain, whether it be the pain one feels, or the one that is inflicted on oneself, whether it be by drugs or abuse. The version released on video (and in many placed adopted by radio) was a concert take where in the clip Trent sings behind a fabric with many disturbing images on it...
"Hurt" wasn't able to place on Billboard's official pop Hot 100 chart since it wasn't released as a proper commercial single, but it gained enough airplay on the total of radio stations in America to make it to #54 on their Hot 100 Airplay component chart in May of 1995. The song climbed to #8 on the Alternative/Modern Rock chart. At the Grammy Awards in 1996, "Hurt" was nominated for Best Rock Song, which went to Alanis Morissette for "You Oughta Know".
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Here's the "quiet" studio mix of the song...
On David Bowie's Outside tour which was opened by Nine Inch Nails, "Hurt" was performed by both of them...
...and at the Glastonbury Festival in 2000...
But it was in 2002 that "Hurt" truly entered the pantheon of great songs, when country music legend Johnny Cash recorded a stark cover of the song with Trent's blessing and produced by Rick Rubin. The song was transformed into a more of a reflection on aging that simply stuns. Cash's version climbed to #33 on Billboard's Modern Rock songs, took the Country Songs list at #56, and got to #25 in Ireland and #39 in Europe.
Back to the Nails' live in 2005...
Fast forward to 2009 for their Ninja Tour...
And finally, Rezner in 2013...
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