"Today" is a song by American alternative rock band the Smashing Pumpkins, written by lead vocalist and guitarist Billy Corgan. The song, though seemingly upbeat, contains dark lyrics; Corgan wrote the song about a day in which he was having suicidal thoughts. The contrast between the grim subject matter of the song and the soft instrumental part during the verses, coupled with use of irony in the lyrics, left many listeners unaware of the song's tale of depression and desperation. The song alternates between quiet, dreamy verses and loud choruses with layered, distorted guitars.
"Today" was released in September 1993 as the second single from the band's second album and major label debut, Siamese Dream. "Today" and its follow-up "Disarm" are credited in AllMusic for popularizing the band and "sen[ding] [Siamese Dream] into the stratosphere". "Today" has been generally well received by critics; a Blender article described it as having "achieved a remarkable status as one of the defining songs of its generation, perfectly mirroring the fractured alienation of American youth in the 1990s". However, the band was experiencing several difficulties at the time. Drummer Jimmy Chamberlin was undergoing an increasingly severe addiction to heroin; James Iha and D'arcy Wretzky had recently broken up their romantic relationship; and Billy Corgan was plagued by writer's block and had become depressed to the point of contemplating suicide. He recalled that "after the first album, I became completely suicidal. It was an eight-month depression, give or take a month, and I was pretty suicidal for about two or three months." Under this pressure and with other complications, the Pumpkins entered the Triclops Sound Studios in Atlanta to record the follow-up to Gish. Corgan played the self-recorded demo to producer Butch Vig and to the rest of his band, all of whom responded positively. Soon afterwards, Virgin Records executives were sent to check up on the band after hearing about their problems, but were pleased with the demo. "Today" is one of the Siamese Dream songs on which Corgan took over Iha and Wretzky's duties on guitar and bass to ensure quality; Wretzky later stated that Corgan "can do something in three takes where it would maybe take me 20". Ned Raggett of Allmusic commented on the song's ability to "alternate between calmer, almost Cure-like sections and the louder crunches, [and Corgan's] soon-to-be-trademark guitar style taking My Bloody Valentine's own hypnotic riffing to more accessible results". Corgan told Rolling Stone that "I was really suicidal ... I just thought it was funny to write a song that said today is the greatest day of your life because it can't get any worse." Corgan later compared writing the lyrics of "Today" and "Disarm" to "ripping [his] guts out". Corgan said that the video's plot was inspired by a memory he had of an ice cream truck driver who, upon quitting his job, gave out the rest of his ice cream to the neighborhood children. This image was then melded with Sednaoui's own sensibilities inspired by the film Zabriskie Point.
Reception
"Today" has received positive reviews. Ned Raggett of AllMusic called the song an "at-once storming but catchy smash single". However, Stylus Magazine<nowiki>'</nowiki>s Brett Hickman said "nothing can make 'Today' sound fresh again [on the live album Earphoria, which this particular review is of]. This is a prime example of the power that radio and MTV have in ruining a great song." "Today" topped Eye Weekly magazine's year-end list of best singles, The song also reached a peak position of number 28 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks, "Today" was later called one of the "hits that took the cool alternative band into stadium rock territory" by the BBC's Dan Tallis in a review of the band's greatest hits album, Rotten Apples, and similarly referred to as the "Smashing Pumpkins' red carpet to the glorified frat houses of alternative rock radio" by Nick Sylvester of Pitchfork Media.
Accolades
{| class="wikitable"
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|+ Accolades for "Today"
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! Publication
! Country
! Accolade
! Year
! align="center"| Rank
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| Eye Weekly
| Canada
| Singles of the Year
| 1993
| 1
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| NME
| UK
| Singles of the Year
| 1993
| 32
|-
| Blender
| U.S.
| The Greatest Songs Ever!
| 2003
| 462
|-
| 97X
| U.S.
| The 500 Best Modern Rock Songs of All Time
| 2006
| 63
|}
<small>(*) designates unordered lists.</small>
Other releases
"Today" has appeared on several Smashing Pumpkins official releases, including the band's greatest hits album Rotten Apples and the box set Siamese Singles. A live version of "Today" performed in the band's hometown of Chicago was included on the 1994 video release Vieuphoria and on its companion album Earphoria, and was praised as "a triumphant recording" by Pitchfork's Chris Dahlen. A different live recording from Chicago appears on the promotional album Live in Chicago 23.10.95 and the song is featured on 14 volumes of Live Smashing Pumpkins. The song has also appeared in different versions on several Smashing Pumpkins bootlegs such as Unplugged: 100% Pure Acoustic Performances, which includes unofficial live recordings and acoustic recordings.
"Today" has been included in a few compilation albums. The eighteenth volume of Indie Top 20, a Melody Maker-sponsored compilation series which serves as a "time capsule of U.K. indie music", features "Today" as its fourth track. The song appears on a two-disc MTV Dutch import, Rock Am Ring, a collection of hit singles from the early 1990s.
Cover versions
The song has been covered for several tribute albums. A Gothic–Industrial Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins features a dance music-influenced version of the song by industrial band Shining. Solomon Burke Jr., the son of influential soul musician Solomon Burke, contributed a "radically altered" rendition of "Today" for Midnight in the Patch: Tribute to the Smashing Pumpkins, performing the song in a Motown style. Other covers of "Today" for tribute albums include performances by Armor for Sleep on The Killer in You: A Tribute to Smashing Pumpkins and by Death Rawk Boy on Ghost Children / Friends and Enemies. The main guitar passage was also sampled by Japanese hip-hop act Dragon Ash in its song "Grateful Days". It was covered by John Craigie on his album Leave the Fire Behind. Deerhunter reinterpreted the song live in 2015, following a legal dispute between frontman Bradford Cox and Corgan, "transforming the song's opening riff into a 10-minute noise-pop improvisation". In 2020 the Fruit Bats released a "breezy cover" of "Today" and a re-working of the entire "Siamese Dream" album. A. G. Cook also covered the song in 2020 on his debut album 7G, and covered it once more under the title "Today (Dream Mix)" on his follow-up remix album Apple vs. 7G, using an altered chord progression. It was covered by Olivia Holt in 2021 for the TV series Cruel Summer.
Formats and track listings
Personnel
- Jimmy Chamberlin – drums
- Billy Corgan – guitars, bass guitar,
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Certifications
Release history
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! scope="col"| Date
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! scope="row"| United Kingdom
| September 13, 1993
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! scope="row"| Australia
| November 22, 1993
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| Hut
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! scope="row"| Japan
| January 26, 1994
| CD
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