Song · Nirvana
“About A Girl (unplugged)” by Nirvana
“About A Girl (unplugged)” by Nirvana appears on 16 radio countdowns from 10 stations between 1994 and 2026. Its best result is #13 on the WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1994. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #112 alternative song of 1994 and #1,926 alternative song of all time.
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Nirvana first put "About a Girl" on their 1989 debut, Bleach, a Kurt Cobain song about his girlfriend of the time that's often counted among his strongest and most tuneful early efforts. This is the live acoustic take, cut when the band taped MTV Unplugged in November 1993, and with the volume pulled back, the melody that was always hiding under the Bleach sludge steps right out front.
It came out as a single in October 1994 to herald MTV Unplugged in New York, the first Nirvana single since Cobain's death that April, and it went to number one on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks chart and 22 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart. His girlfriend only learned the song was about her from Michael Azerrad's 1993 biography, Come As You Are; Cobain had never said.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
Classic Rock
Hard Rock & Metal
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | 13 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1994 | 100 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | 75 | KISW | KISW Top 999 of All Time (2002) | 999 |
| 2004 | 181 | Y100 | Y100 Top 300 Songs of All-Time (July 2004) | 300 |
| 2004 | 50 | WBCN | WBCN Grunge Top 104 (2004) | 104 |
| 2005 | 190 | 99X | 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) | 1000 |
| 2009 | 184 | Live 105 | Live 105 Memorial 500 Song List (2009) | 500 |
| 2021 | 86 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2021) | 420 |
| 2022 | 86 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2022) | 420 |
| 2022 | 468 | 106.7 WLLZ | WLLZ Rock N Roll 500 (2022) | 500 |
| 2023 | 87 | 105.9 The X | 105.9 The X July 420 (2023) | 420 |
| 2023 | 408 | 106.7 WLLZ | WLLZ Rock N Roll 500 (2023) | 500 |
| 2024 | 323 | KSHE 95 | KSHE 95 Rock N' Roll 500 (2024) | 500 |
| 2024 | 399 | 106.7 WLLZ | WLLZ Rock N Roll 500 (2024) | 500 |
| 2025 | 468 | 106.7 WLLZ | WLLZ Rock N Roll 500 (2025) | 500 |
| 2026 | 261 | 101X | 101X 500 (2026) | 500 |
| 2026 | 473 | 106.7 WLLZ | WLLZ Rock N Roll 500 (2026) | 500 |
Also listed as: About A Girl (Unplugged); About a Girl (Unplugged).
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