"Smells Like Nirvana" is a song written and performed by American musician "Weird Al" Yankovic as a parody of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit". It was released as the lead single from his Off the Deep End album in April 1992. "Smells Like Nirvana" was written during a three-year career low for Yankovic after the financial failure of his film UHF, but captured the quickly-rising popularity of grunge and Nirvana's success. The song was written to poke fun at Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's unintelligible lyrics in the original song. After being unable to contact Nirvana conventionally, Yankovic called Cobain while the band was on the set of Saturday Night Live, where Cobain quickly gave permission to record the parody.
Recording the song was a change for Yankovic and his band. Usually, the group was forced to record several overdubs. "Smells Like Nirvana", however, was relatively straightforward in its musical composition. To promote the single, Yankovic created an associated video for the song that parodied and closely mirrored the original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video, even going so far as to hire several of the same actors and use the same set.
"Smells Like Nirvana" was met with critical praise and helped to re-energize Yankovic's career. Dave Grohl of Nirvana said Yankovic's parody enabled them to recognize the success their band had achieved. The song is one of Yankovic's most successful singles and was his second top 40 hit in the United States, reaching number 35 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the U.S. Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song's video was nominated for a 1992 MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
Background
Prior to writing "Smells Like Nirvana", Yankovic's music career had suffered from the poor financial performance of his 1989 feature film, UHF and the associated soundtrack. Yankovic called that "the beginning of three years where it was kind of hard for me to recover". Yankovic explained that the song would be about Cobain's incomprehensible lyrics, to which Cobain replied, according to Yankovic, "Oh, sure, of course, that's funny." The solo also features kazoos and a tuba, with the latter being played by Tommy Johnson.
Lyrically, "Smells Like Nirvana" pokes fun at the original song's difficult-to-understand lyrics. The opening verse begins "What is this song/All about?/Can't figure any lyrics out", and at one point Yankovic purposely garbles the lyrics: "It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss/With all these marbles in my mouth". Levey said that they were able to recreate much of the same setting with help of the producers of the original Nirvana video once they were aware that the song had Cobain's blessing. According to Yankovic, Van Patten became "kind of [their] good luck charm", and he would appear in a few of Yankovic's future videos. Professional skateboarder Tony Hawk also appears as one of the many extras as a result of the Birdhouse Skateboards team providing "skater/punks" for the video, although Yankovic was not aware of this until a 2009 Twitter post by Hawk. Schwartz attempted to recreate Grohl's wild headbanging during filming, leaving him with a stiff neck several days afterward. The single was backed with a song called "Waffle King", a song detailing a man who becomes famous through making waffles and ends up letting the fame get to his head. This song was originally intended to appear on Off the Deep End, but was excluded due to Yankovic's fear that the song "I Was Only Kidding" would have a lyric that would not be funny by the time the following album was released. While the song later ended up on the following album, Alapalooza, Yankovic put it as the b-side to "Smells Like Nirvana" "in case there wasn't going to be a next album".
The single charted on several Billboard charts, making it Yankovic's most successful single since his single "Eat It", which charted in 1984. The single also charted on the Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks, also peaking at number 35. Nirvana famously enjoyed the parody. Cobain is claimed to have only considered Nirvana to have "made it" with the success of Yankovic's parody. According to an executive for Nirvana's label, DGC Records, "Smells Like Nirvana" was responsible for selling an additional million copies of Nirvana's album Nevermind. The video was nominated for the 1992 MTV Video Awards for "Best Male Video", although it did not win. At the awards ceremony, Nirvana was initially asked to perform, but they declined. The offer was then extended to Yankovic, before Nirvana relented. Yankovic later joked that "I might've been a bargaining chip".
Live performances
thumb|upright|right|"Weird Al" Yankovic performing "Smells Like Nirvana" in concert, dressed like Kurt Cobain
During live performances, Yankovic dons clothing similar to what Cobain wore in the video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit". This includes a right-handed guitar strung upside down (a common solution for left-handed guitarists like Cobain), a shirt similar to Cobain's, and a blonde wig. The costuming for the performance is critical; Schwartz explained that "if anything's missing, Al won't do it". Sometimes during the third verse, after Yankovic sings "And I forgot the next verse," he drops out for the next few lines, pretending to actually forget the lyrics.
Track listing
US pressing
- "Smells Like Nirvana" – 3:42
- "Trigger Happy" – 3:46
- "Waffle King" – 4:26
US cassette single
- "Smells Like Nirvana" – 3:42
- "Waffle King" – 4:26
Personnel
- "Weird Al" Yankovic – vocals, background vocals, production, arrangement
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!scope="row"| Canadian RPM Top Singles
| 48
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!scope="row"| New Zealand Singles Chart
| 4
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!scope="row"| Swedish Singles Chart
| 38
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!scope="row"| UK Singles Chart
| 58
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!scope="row"| US Cashbox Top 100 Pop Singles
|22
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!scope="row"| US Billboard Hot 100
| 35
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!scope="row"| US Billboard Hot Mainstream Rock Tracks
| 35
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