"Do Re Mi" is a song by American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist, Kurt Cobain. It first appeared on the band's rarities box set, With the Lights Out, released in November 2004. A second version appears on the deluxe edition of Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings, released in November 2015.
Origin and release
Originally titled "Dough, Ray and Me" and then "Me and my IV", the song officially released as "Do Re Mi" is one of the last-known Cobain compositions. Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, began mentioning the song in interviews shortly after Cobain's death in April 1994, naming it as one of his "three completed, finished" unrecorded songs, along with "Opinion" and "Talk to Me". In a 1994 Rolling Stone interview, she told interviewer David Fricke:
<blockquote>"The third one, I can't sing. It's too fucking good. Every part of it is really catchy. He was calling it 'Dough, Ray and Me.' I thought it was a little corny. It was the last thing he wrote on our bed. The chorus was 'Dough, Ray and me/Dough, Ray and me,' and then it was 'Me and my IV.' I had asked him after [Cobain's suicide attempt in Rome, Italy] to freeze his sperm. So there's this whole thing about freezing your uterus." DeRogatis wrote that a four-track version of the song was also in existence, featuring Cobain on drums and vocals, Nirvana second guitarist Pat Smear on guitar, and Hole guitarist Eric Erlandson on bass. Collin Brennan of Consequence of Sound called it "the finest Cobain composition that never saw the light of day during his lifetime" and wrote, "If Paul McCartney was born a few decades later and opted for dirty flannel instead of a moptop, this is the kind of tune he might have spawned."
Recording and release history
{| class="wikitable"
!Date recorded
!Studio
!Producer/recorder
!Releases
!Personnel
|-
|Early 1994
|Cobain residence, Seattle
|Kurt Cobain
|Montage of Heck: The Home Recordings (2015)
|
- Kurt Cobain - vocals, guitar
|-
|Early 1994
|Bedroom, Cobain residence, Seattle
|Kurt Cobain
|With the Lights Out (2004)<br/>Sliver: The Best of the Box (2005)
|
- Kurt Cobain - vocals, guitar
|-
|March 1994
|Basement, Cobain residence, Seattle
|Kurt Cobain
|Unreleased
|
- Kurt Cobain - vocals, drums
- Eric Erlandson - bass