All Apologies (Nirvana)



"All Apologies" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the 12th and final song on the band's third and final studio album, In Utero, released in September, 1993. In December, 1993, it was released as the second single as a double A-side with the song, "Rape Me".

"All Apologies" was Nirvana's third number-one Modern Rock hit and reached number 32 on the UK Singles Chart. It was nominated for two Grammy Awards in 1995, and was included on the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's list of "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

Origin and recording
"All Apologies" was written by Cobain in 1990. In 2005, drummer Dave Grohl recalled that the song was "something that Kurt wrote on [a] 4-track in our apartment in Olympia. I remember hearing it and thinking, 'God, this guy has such a beautiful sense of melody, I can’t believe he’s screaming all the time.'"

The song was first recorded in the studio by Craig Montgomery at Music Source Studios in Seattle, Washington on January 1, 1991. This version featured a folkier sound, with bassist Krist Novoselic accompanying Cobain on guitar playing seventh chords, and Grohl's drumming accented by a tambourine. "All Apologies" was first performed live at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England on November 6, 1991.

Nirvana recorded the song for their third album, In Utero, in February 1993 with Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. The song, at that point tentatively titled "La La La," was recorded on February 14. The recording featured Kera Schaley on cello, who also played on "Dumb," and was the only musician to appear on the album other than the band members. Albini recalled "really liking the sound of that song as a contrast to the more aggressive ones" on the album, saying that "it sounded really good in that it sounded lighter, but it didn't sound conventional. It was sort of a crude light sound that suited the band." In 1993, Cobain said songs such as "All Apologies" and "Dumb" represented "the lighter, more dynamic" sound that he wished had been more prominent on previous Nirvana albums.

"All Apologies" was remixed, along with "Heart-Shaped Box" and later "Pennyroyal Tea", by Scott Litt at Bad Animals in Seattle, Washington, as Cobain felt that the vocals and bass sounded "mushy" in Albini's mixes. "All Apologies" and "Heart-Shaped Box" were remixed in May, 1993. Novoselic defended the band's decision to remix the two songs by calling them "gateways" to the more abrasive sound of the rest of the album, and that once listeners played the record they would discover "this aggressive wild sound, a true alternative record".

Composition and lyrics
Cobain dedicated "All Apologies" to his wife, Courtney Love, and their daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, during the band's appearance at the Reading Festival in Reading, England on August 30, 1992. "I like to think the song is for them," he told Michael Azerrad in the 1993 biography, Come As You Are: The Story of Nirvana, "but the words don't really fit in relation to us...the feeling does, but not the lyrics." Cobain summarized the song's mood as "peaceful, happy, comfort - just happy happiness."

Release and reception
"All Apologies" was released as a double A-side single with "Rape Me" on December 6, 1993 on CD, cassette tape, and 7" and 12" vinyl record formats. The only instruction Cobain gave the single's art director Robert Fisher regarding the packaging was that he wanted "Something with seahorses". Like its predecessor "Heart-Shaped Box", the single was not released commercially in the United States. However, the song did peak at number 1 on the US Modern Rock Tracks Chart, remaining on the chart for twenty-one weeks and boosting sales of the In Utero album nationwide.

Everett True of Melody Maker made "All Apologies" the magazine's "Single Of The Week," calling it "the most supremely resigned, supremely weary fuck you to the outside world I've heard this year," with "the most gorgeous, aching tune, an emotionally draining ennui." In his review of In Utero for Rolling Stone, David Fricke called the song a "stunning trump card, the fluid twining of cello and guitar hinting at a little fireside R.E.M. while the full-blaze pop glow of the chorus shows the debt of inspiration Cobain has always owed to Paul Westerberg and the vintage Replacements."

"All Apologies" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal and Best Rock Song in 1995. "All Apologies" is also a BMI Award-winning song, for receiving the most number of plays on American college radio in 1994 - 1995. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has included "All Apologies" on its list of "The Songs That Shaped Rock and Roll".

In 2005, Blender ranked the song at number 99 on their list of The 500 Greatest Songs Since You Were Born. In 2011, it was ranked at number 462 on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.

On April 10, 2017, the song was performed by surviving Nirvana members Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear, with lead vocals by New Zealand musician Lorde, at Nirvana's Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony at Barclays Centre in Brooklyn, New York. The performance also featured Annie Clark, Kim Gordon and Joan Jett.

On February 4, 2018, an instrumental version of the song appeared in a Super Bowl commercial for T-mobile. This version originally appeared on the 2006 album Lullaby Renditions of Nirvana, part of the Rockabye Baby! series of albums which reinterpreted songs by popular artists as lullabies, aimed towards infants. It also appeared in the 2015 Cobain documentary Montage of Heck, directed by Brett Morgen.

Music video
According to comedian Bobcat Goldthwait, who opened for Nirvana at some shows during the band's In Utero tour, Cobain had wanted to make a music video for "All Apologies" that involved him being drunk at a party. Goldthwait suggested that Cobain perform the song dressed as Lee Harvey Oswald, singing into the camera while putting his rifle together in the Texas School Book Depository from which he assassinated American president, John F. Kennedy. Cobain told Goldthwait that MTV didn't allow guns in music videos, so Goldthwait suggested he use a pie instead of a gun, with Novoselic or Grohl playing Kennedy and being hit by the pie in the back of their head. Cobain liked the idea, but no official music video for the song was ever made. The MTV Unplugged performance of the song began airing as a music video on MTV in December 1993 instead.

MTV Unplugged version
An acoustic version of the song, featuring Smear on second guitar and Lori Goldston on cello, was recorded during Nirvana's MTV Unplugged performance at Sony Music Studios in New York City on November 18, 1993. MTV began airing this version of the song as a music video shortly after, which coincided with the release of the song as the second single from In Utero in December 1993. When asked in a 1993 MTV interview about the use of this version as the song's music video, Cobain revealed, "I don't think ["All Apologies"] was the best performance off the Unplugged thing," and said that he believed the band had "played that song a lot better before," but admitted he had been too busy with touring to come up with a music video for the studio version.

The Unplugged version of "All Apologies" was released as a promotional single in early 1994,, and on the album MTV Unplugged in New York in November 1994. It was ranked number seven on MTV's "Top 100 Video Countdown of 1994", and despite Cobain's reservations, went on to receive more radio airplay than the studio version. It appears on both of the band's greatest hits albums, Nirvana (2002) and Icon (2010).

Formats and track listing
In Utero version. Released as a double A-side with "Rape Me".

CD single and 12" vinyl
 * 1) A. "All Apologies" - 3:50
 * 2) A. "Rape Me" - 2:49
 * 3) B. "Moist Vagina" - 3:34

Cassette and 7" vinyl
 * 1) A. "All Apologies" - 3:50
 * 2) A. "Rape Me" - 2:49

US promo CD (version 1)
 * 1) "All Apologies"

US promo CD (version 2) (includes lyrics)
 * 1) "All Apologies"
 * 2) "Rape Me"

MTV Unplugged in New York version.

European promotional CD single
 * 1) All Apologies. (Unplugged version).

US promotional CD single (released early 1994)
 * 1) All Apologies. (Unplugged version).
 * 2) All Apologies. (In Utero version).

Awards
Unplugged version

Personnel

 * Kurt Cobain - vocals, guitars
 * Krist Novoselic - bass
 * Dave Grohl - drums

Additional personnel

 * Kera Schaley - cello