Nirvana‘s influence was so immense, it’s easy to forget just how little music they recorded. There were only three official LPs, a handful of EPs, a smattering of singles and one-offs. Sadly, out of the 100 songs we compiled for this list, the highest concentration are from 2004’s With the Lights Out, an expansive box set of rare and unreleased cuts.
Here’s the thing, though: With very few exceptions, Kurt Cobain didn’t write filler. Some of his most iconic moments were actually tacked onto compilations (“Sappy”) or even went unreleased (“You Know You’re Right”) before his suicide at age 27.
Cobain’s death on April 5, 1994 shifted rock culture as much as his grunge anthem “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” But where does it finish among Nirvana’s best tracks? We’ve taken a look at everything from “Beans” to “Big Cheese,” from “Mrs. Butterworth” to “Mr. Moustache” to compile this list of All 100 Nirvana Songs Ranked Worst to Best.
100. “Immigrant Song,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Cobain and the boys add a punk spin to this Led Zeppelin classic in rehearsal footage unearthed for a warts-and-all box set called With the Lights Out. It’s fun as a completist’s gaze into this multi-platinum band’s humble beginnings. But the fidelity is so gross that it couldn’t possibly be anything but their least essential recording.
99. “Raunchola,” With the Lights Out (2004)
This January 1988 live recording finds Nirvana at their most amateurish — pairing rickety punk riffs, noisy guitar spasms, and warbled nonsense about gutters and cocktails.
98. “Beans,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Nirvana’s debut LP, 1989’s Bleach, is defined by its sludgy, de-tuned distortion, so it’s hard to imagine how this wacky leftover — 91 grating seconds of pitch-shifted vocals and acoustic pluck — would have fit in. “[Sub Pop co-founder Jonathan Poneman] thought it was stupid,” Cobain told Michael Azerrad in his 1993 book Come As You Are. In this case, the executive’s instincts were spot-on. Kudos to Cobain for trying to showcase the band’s quirky, avant-garde side at this early stage. If only he’d written an actual song to accompany the weirdness.
Beans (Solo Acoustic)
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97. “Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip,” In Utero (1993)
This improvisational demo, a blend of mumbled nonsense and atonal rumblings, was recorded during a January 1993 session in Brazil and slapped onto some CD editions of In Utero as a bonus track. Nirvana’s final album mostly harnessed abrasiveness as a weapon (see “Milk It,” “Very Ape”). Here, it was a crutch.
96. “Seasons in the Sun,” With the Lights Out (2004)
In this Brazil outtake, Terry Jacks’ cornball 1974 hit is transformed into an ironic slacker-rock mumble-along. (Though the irony couldn’t have been too thick since Cobain once journaled about his childhood affection for the song.) No one was taking this very seriously, as evidenced by the instrument-swapping: Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic churn along competently enough on bass and guitar, respectively, but Cobain’s plodding drums are amusingly rough.
95. “The Other Improv,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Is there anyone on Earth who cites this ragged Brazil leftover as their favorite song?
The Other Improv (Demo)
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94. “If You Must,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Cobain accidentally channels Bob Dylan on this dissonant waltz from their January 1988 demo. “Set the mood, something new,” he wheezes over the din. “Is it me, or my attitude?” In this case, the latter.
93. “Return of the Rat,” Eight Songs for Greg Sage and the Wipers (1992)
Nirvana did the Wipers an enormous solid by covering the Portland punk band’s “Return of the Rat” for a tribute album. Good deed indeed, but their straightforward version added nothing to the original.
92. “Curmudegon,” “Lithium” single (1992)
Cobain references fleas, Satan, and God on this plodding B-side, his ramblings fighting for air under a mountain of fuzz and phaser.
91. “They Hung Him on the Cross,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Cobain and Novoselic joined Screaming Trees’ Mark Lanegan and Mark Pickerel in 1989 for an aborted attempt at forming a modern-day blues supergroup, called the Jury. That resulted in a passive studio session in which they cranked out four Lead Belly covers, including this nauseating take on the Jesus story, “They Hung Him on a Cross,” featuring a solo Cobain moaning over an out-of-tune guitar.
They Hung Him On A Cross (Demo)
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90. “My Best Friend’s Girl,” In Utero reissue (2013)
At age 14, armed with the used guitar he received as a birthday present, Cobain started mining the classic rock songbook — learning the chords of anthems like Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven,” Queen‘s “Another One Bites the Dust,” and this 1978 Cars hit. Over a decade later, Cobain went back to his teenage roots, dusting off the New Wave tune to open Nirvana’s Munich, Germany gig on March 1, 1994 — in what became their final show. The performance is ragged but charming, with Cobain attempting to ape Ric Ocasek’s clipped vocal style before slipping back into grunge again on chorus.
89. “Big Cheese,” “Love Buzz” single (1988)
Some high, atmospheric vocal harmonies prove Cobain wasn’t afraid of pop beauty early on, despite what the raucous onslaught of Bleach may have suggested. Otherwise, it’s by-the-numbers brooding for a band who’d quickly grow out of that one-dimensional phase.
88. “Token Eastern Song,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Cobain saw the value (and, based on the title, humor) in rock bands playing around with Eastern melodies. But this 1989 leftover — his most overt exploration in that vein — is more interesting in theory than as an actual song, despite Novoselic’s colorful bassline.
87. “Do You Love Me?,” Hard to Believe: A Kiss Cover Compilation (1990)
Guitarist Jason Everman makes one of his two recorded Nirvana appearances on this Kiss cover, not that you can tell: It’s a demo-worthy afterthought stuffed to the brim with Cobain’s wild wails. It’s fun hearing the band’s undervalued silly side, but it’s also painful on the ears.
Nirvana Do You Love Me
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86. “Ain’t It a Shame to Go Fishin’ on a Sunday,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Cobain rants about fishing, drinking, and spousal abuse on this boogie-rock throwaway from the Jury sessions.
85. “I Hate Myself and Want to Die,” The Beavis and Butthead Experience (1993)
The backstory of this Brazil recording, a demented swirl of sci-fi feedback and carnivalesque bass, is much more intriguing than the song itself. Cobain originally wanted to use the title — a joke about his public perception — for In Utero, but he wisely backed off the idea. “Nothing more than a joke,” he told Rolling Stone of the name. “And that had a bit to do with why we decided to take it off. We knew people wouldn’t get it; they’d take it too seriously. It was totally satirical, making fun of ourselves. I’m thought of as this pissy, complaining, freaked–out schizophrenic who wants to kill himself all the time. ‘He isn’t satisfied with anything.’ And I thought it was a funny title. I wanted it to be the title of the album for a long time. But I knew the majority of the people wouldn’t understand it.” The sarcasm flew over the head of Oasis guitarist Noel Gallagher, who once said the song’s “fucking rubbish” attitude inspired him to write “Live Forever.” That’s one roundabout way to score a hit.
84. “Help Me I’m Hungry,” With the Lights Out (2004)
Nirvana, then with drummer Aaron Burckhard, unveiled this abrasive cut during a 1987 in-studio set for Olympia’s KOAS community radio station. It’s tough to parse Cobain’s tortured screams, but he clearly references a man feeding his picked-off scabs to a pigeon. Cool? For reasons that remain a mystery, they periodically dusted it off onstage over the next four years.
83. “Stain,” Blew EP (1989)
“He never bleeds, and he never fucks / And he never leaves ’cause he’s got bad luck,” Cobain observes. The squawking guitar solo is no consolation.
82. “Jam,” In Utero reissue (2003)
Novoselic churns out a bluesy bassline, Grohl pummels away at his tom-toms like they owe him money, and Cobain blissfully wigs out on the guitar. This In Utero outtake is the sound of Nirvana’s classic trio in full flight — if only they were armed with a song.
81. “Anorexorcist,” With the Lights Out (2004)
The grinding “Anorexorcist” dates back to 1985, when Cobain recorded a demo with his short-lived punk act Fecal Matter (featuring Melvins drummer — and briefly tenured Nirvana recruit — Dale Crover). It survived into the Nirvana days and wound up preserved during the KOAS session, but it’s only worth exploring as a historical footnote. (Fist bump to Novoselic for his melodic bass part, dancing high above the detuned din.)
80. “Old Age,” With the Lights Out (2004)
So much backstory, so little song. “Old Age” started out in 1991 as a loose cassette recording intended to showcase their material for producer Butch Vig (who went on to produce Nevermind); and the band recorded an in-progress take during the sessions for that album. It wound up being developed and finished off by Cobain’s then-wife, Courtney Love, in 1993 for the B-side of “Beautiful Son,” a single from her band, Hole. (An updated Hole version then emerged two years later.) The credits curiously only listed Love’s name, though Novoselic confirmed to The Stranger in 1998 that “Old Age” was a Cobain composition. When the Nevermind version wound up on this massive box set six years later, listening to it felt like voyeurism: Cobain mumbles half-formed lyrics over a clean guitar progression, teasing the Nevermind-caliber rock anthem that never was.
