“All Apologies” by Nirvana

"All Apologies" closes In Utero, Nirvana's third and final studio album, which DGC put out in September 1993, and it's the gentlest, saddest thing on a record otherwise full of broken glass. Kurt Cobain wrote it alone and sings it over his own guitar, with Krist Novoselic on bass, Dave Grohl on drums and guest Kera Schaley sawing away on cello. Steve Albini recorded it, Adam Kasper chipped in extra engineering and Scott Litt gave it an additional mix. On copies sold outside America the track keeps rolling: about 20 minutes of silence, then the hidden "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip".

It sways where the rest of the album stomps: a lilting, lullaby guitar figure, the cello droning underneath, and Cobain sounding tired, tender and resigned all at once, the chorus circling like a mantra until it drifts off. On December 6, 1993, it came out as the album's second single, sharing a double A-side with "Rape Me", and it turned out to be the last Nirvana single released before Cobain's death in April 1994.

There was never a proper video; MTV ran the band's Unplugged performance of it instead, and that live take went out as a promo single in February 1994 and got hammered on the air. Without any physical US single, it still became their third Modern Rock chart-topper, reached number 32 in the UK, earned two Grammy nominations in 1995 and a BMI award for topping the play counts on American college radio, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame put it on its list of The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.