Dave Grohl Says One of Nirvana’s Biggest Songs Wasn’t Their Greatest (And Which One He Thought Should’ve Been the Hit) - VICE

Nirvana might have soared to superstardom with their 1991 hit “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, but drummer Dave Grohl thinks “there’s better” songs.

The Foo Fighters frontman revealed his opinion during an interview with Mojo, saying that he didn’t really get the hype then and still kinda doesn’t. “I didn’t really think much of ‘Teen Spirit’ at first,” he confessed. “I thought it was just another one of the jams that we were doing… But ‘Teen Spirit’ was one we kept coming back to because the simple guitar lines were so memorable.”

Released as a single in September 1991, “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was Nirvana’s first major song. While speaking to Mojo, Grohl noted that it wasn’t until the band started seeing how concert crowds reacted to it that they realized they had a hit on their hands.

“We played a show in Seattle to get gas money to go down to Los Angeles to record the record. We set it up at the last minute,” he recalled. “It was an afternoon gig, and we played that song for the first time, and the audience went nuts. I don’t know if it was the rhythm or the melody, but people got caught on it pretty quick.”

Funnily enough, Grohl was certain two of the band’s other “I thought ‘In Bloom’ was going to be the smash hit off the record, or ‘Lithium.’ I thought ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was just another album cut… it soon became pretty clear that it would be the special song on the record. But, of course, at that point we didn’t think anything was going to happen with the record.”

The members of Nirvana, Grohl said, remained “in our little bubble”, for the most part, even as “Teen Spirit” was picking up popularity on the radio and MTV. “[W]e were in our van, the three of us, Krist’s wife Shelli, our monitor guy Miles, and Monty Lee Wilkes, our tour manager,” he shared.

“And it didn’t seem like anything unusual was happening,” Grohl continued. “Until we’d get to the gig and it was f**king chaos. And we started to notice there were normal people here – ‘What are they doing here? That guy looks like a jock, what the f**k is he doing here?’ And it was like, ‘Oh, maybe that video thing is attracting some riff-raff!’

Grohl added, “The only indication that our world was turning upside down would be when you’d get to the venue. Then it would be, ‘Holy s**t, these people are nuts!’”

The rocker also pointed out that, while the song was big on the radio, its music video was almost bigger. “People heard the song on the radio, and they thought, ‘This is great,’” he remembered. “But when kids saw the video on MTV, they thought, ‘This is cool. These guys are kinda ugly, and they’re tearing up their f**king high school!’”

Grohl added: “But do I think it’s the greatest single of all time? Of course not! I don’t even think it’s the greatest Nirvana single. And compared to ‘Revolution’ by the Beatles or ‘God Only Knows’ by the Beach Boys.”

Finally, the Grammy-winning rock star added, “‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was a great moment in time. But there’s better.”