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"Smells Like Nirvana" is a parody of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's 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 the grunge style and Nirvana's success. The song was written to poke fun at the fact that many people had a hard time understanding Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's lyrics in the original song. After being unable to contact Nirvana by conventional means, 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 were forced to record several overdubs. However, "Smells Like Nirvana" was relatively straightforward in terms of the musical composition. To promote the single, Yankovic created an associated video for the song that parodied the "Smells like Teen Spirit" video. The parody video closely mirrored the original; Yankovic even went 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. Cobain considered the parody as a sign that they had "made it" as a band. The song is one of Yankovic's most successful singles, reaching number 35 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the US Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song's video was nominated for a 1992 MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
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". He started work on a new studio album around 1990. To revitalize his career, he considered creating a parody of a Michael Jackson song, which had proven successful twice before with "Eat It" and "Fat". He had composed a parody of Jackson's "Black or White", entitled "Snack All Night", but Jackson said he was uncomfortable with the parody, given that the original song was intended to be a political statement. Yankovic would later believe that Jackson's refusal was, in retrospect, a blessing; he felt that "Snack All Night" was not one of his better works. While he had compiled other original songs for a new album, he feared the lack of a good parody song would doom the album to failure, and held off from releasing anything until an idea presented itself.
At that time, the band Nirvana started to become a name in the music scene, creating "big, seismic shifts in pop culture" according to Yankovic. Yankovic felt that the band's 1991 album Nevermind, which featured "Smells Like Teen Spirit", was "really great", but feared that at its release, the band was not popular enough to warrant a parody. By early 1992, Nevermind had reached platinum certification and led the Billboard charts, which led Yankovic to start working on a parody. Yankovic noted that much of the publicity around Nevermind dealt with the inability to comprehend the songs' lyrics—both in their phrasing and the manner in which they were sung by the lead vocalist Kurt Cobain; Yankovic decided to use this as the basis for his parody. Yankovic noted, "I try not to go the obvious route all the time, but sometimes the most obvious is actually the best." Yankovic had initial difficulty getting permission for the parody, as his manager claimed he was unable to get through to the group numerous times. When Yankovic learned that Nirvana would be performing on the January 11, 1992 show of Saturday Night Live, he called his UHF co-star, Victoria Jackson, at the time a regular cast member of the show. Jackson got Cobain on the phone so that Yankovic could make his request. Cobain agreed, though initially he inquired if the song would be about food, a common theme in many of Yankovic's songs. 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 song was recorded around January 27, 1992 at Santa Monica Sound Records, in Santa Monica, California. It was the final song recorded for the album, as Yankovic generally records the songs that he thinks will be released as singles last; in this case, he knew that "Smells Like Nirvana" would be the lead-off single for the new album. Recording took between three and four days. The band worked at trying to match the same tempos that were in the original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" song; Jon Schwartz, Yankovic's drummer, noted that "the part was pretty loose. Tempos were up and down. We adjusted the tempos on our song to meet the Nirvana version. It's by no means steady." Compared to previous parodies, where upwards of 20-some instruments had to be mixed together, the simpler composition of "Teen Spirit" made it much easier for the band to complete the song.
Yankovic later noted that recording the song's vocals was particularly difficult, because he was singing "for eight to 12 hours a day", which caused strain on his vocal cords. For the verse where Yankovic mumbles the lyrics to the song, he placed several cookies in his mouth to achieve the garbled effect. During the parody's musical interlude, Yankovic gargled water to the tune of the original's guitar solo. 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 words. The opening verse begins "What is this song/All about?/Can't figure any lyrics out". At one point, Yankovic purposely garbles the lyrics: "It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss /With all these marbles in my mouth". He admitted in an interview that he woke up "in the middle of the night" and wrote down the phrase "bargle nawdle zouss", thinking that it would "be important someday."
The music video, directed by Yankovic's manager Jay Levey, is a near shot-for-shot parody of the original video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which depicts the band playing at a high school concert while it descends into riot. Yankovic is present on guitar and vocals as Kurt Cobain, with Steve Jay on bass as Krist Novoselic, and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums as Dave Grohl. All three wear clothing and long-haired wigs to imitate the look of Nirvana in "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Yankovic's video uses many of the same props, actors and camera angles; in particular, the video was shot in the same Culver City, California sound stage as Nirvana's video, several of the cheerleaders and audience members were from the original video, and Tony De La Rosa reprises his role as the janitor. Levey stated 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. Yankovic had a brief conversation with Samuel Bayer, the original director of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in preparation for the video shoot. Although Yankovic noted that "he was certainly going along with it", he felt that Bayer was "the least enthused" because "he was a true artiste" and was reluctant to see his work parodied.
The video includes actor Dick Van Patten in a guest role. Van Patten, being one of the few celebrities that could be reached through immediate contacts, was a last-minute addition by Yankovic. 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.
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"Smells Like Nirvana" is a parody of Nirvana's song "Smells Like Teen Spirit", written and performed by "Weird Al" Yankovic; it was released both as a single and as part of Yankovic's 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 the grunge style and Nirvana's success. The song was written to poke fun at the fact that many people had a hard time understanding Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain's lyrics in the original song. After being unable to contact Nirvana by conventional means, 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 were forced to record several overdubs. However, "Smells Like Nirvana" was relatively straightforward in terms of the musical composition. To promote the single, Yankovic created an associated video for the song that parodied the "Smells like Teen Spirit" video. The parody video closely mirrored the original; Yankovic even went 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. Cobain considered the parody as a sign that they had "made it" as a band. The song is one of Yankovic's most successful singles, reaching number 35 on both the Billboard Hot 100 and the US Mainstream Rock Tracks. The song's video was nominated for a 1992 MTV Video Music Award for Best Male Video.
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". He started work on a new studio album around 1990. To revitalize his career, he considered creating a parody of a Michael Jackson song, which had proven successful twice before with "Eat It" and "Fat". He had composed a parody of Jackson's "Black or White", entitled "Snack All Night", but Jackson said he was uncomfortable with the parody, given that the original song was intended to be a political statement. Yankovic would later believe that Jackson's refusal was, in retrospect, a blessing; he felt that "Snack All Night" was not one of his better works. While he had compiled other original songs for a new album, he feared the lack of a good parody song would doom the album to failure, and held off from releasing anything until an idea presented itself.
At that time, the band Nirvana started to become a name in the music scene, creating "big, seismic shifts in pop culture" according to Yankovic. Yankovic felt that the band's 1991 album Nevermind, which featured "Smells Like Teen Spirit", was "really great", but feared that at its release, the band was not popular enough to warrant a parody. By early 1992, Nevermind had reached platinum certification and led the Billboard charts, which led Yankovic to start working on a parody. Yankovic noted that much of the publicity around Nevermind dealt with the inability to comprehend the songs' lyrics—both in their phrasing and the manner in which they were sung by the lead vocalist Kurt Cobain; Yankovic decided to use this as the basis for his parody. Yankovic noted, "I try not to go the obvious route all the time, but sometimes the most obvious is actually the best." Yankovic had initial difficulty getting permission for the parody, as his manager claimed he was unable to get through to the group numerous times. When Yankovic learned that Nirvana would be performing on the January 11, 1992 show of Saturday Night Live, he called his UHF co-star, Victoria Jackson, at the time a regular cast member of the show. Jackson got Cobain on the phone so that Yankovic could make his request. Cobain agreed, though initially he inquired if the song would be about food, a common theme in many of Yankovic's songs. 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 song was recorded around January 27, 1992 at Santa Monica Sound Records, in Santa Monica, California. It was the final song recorded for the album, as Yankovic generally records the songs that he thinks will be released as singles last; in this case, he knew that "Smells Like Nirvana" would be the lead-off single for the new album. Recording took between three and four days. The band worked at trying to match the same tempos that were in the original "Smells Like Teen Spirit" song; Jon Schwartz, Yankovic's drummer, noted that "the part was pretty loose. Tempos were up and down. We adjusted the tempos on our song to meet the Nirvana version. It's by no means steady." Compared to previous parodies, where upwards of 20-some instruments had to be mixed together, the simpler composition of "Teen Spirit" made it much easier for the band to complete the song.
Yankovic later noted that recording the song's vocals was particularly difficult, because he was singing "for eight to 12 hours a day", which caused strain on his vocal cords. For the verse where Yankovic mumbles the lyrics to the song, he placed several cookies in his mouth to achieve the garbled effect. During the parody's musical interlude, Yankovic gargled water to the tune of the original's guitar solo. 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 words. The opening verse begins "What is this song/All about?/Can't figure any lyrics out". At one point, Yankovic purposely garbles the lyrics: "It's hard to bargle nawdle zouss /With all these marbles in my mouth". He admitted in an interview that he woke up "in the middle of the night" and wrote down the phrase "bargle nawdle zouss", thinking that it would "be important someday."
The music video, directed by Yankovic's manager Jay Levey, is a near shot-for-shot parody of the original video for "Smells Like Teen Spirit", which depicts the band playing at a high school concert while it descends into riot. Yankovic is present on guitar and vocals as Kurt Cobain, with Steve Jay on bass as Krist Novoselic, and Jon "Bermuda" Schwartz on drums as Dave Grohl. All three wear clothing and long-haired wigs to imitate the look of Nirvana in "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Yankovic's video uses many of the same props, actors and camera angles; in particular, the video was shot in the same Culver City, California sound stage as Nirvana's video, several of the cheerleaders and audience members were from the original video, and Tony De La Rosa reprises his role as the janitor. Levey stated 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. Yankovic had a brief conversation with Samuel Bayer, the original director of "Smells Like Teen Spirit" in preparation for the video shoot. Although Yankovic noted that "he was certainly going along with it", he felt that Bayer was "the least enthused" because "he was a true artiste" and was reluctant to see his work parodied.
The video includes actor Dick Van Patten in a guest role. Van Patten, being one of the few celebrities that could be reached through immediate contacts, was a last-minute addition by Yankovic. 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.
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Comedy 
Humorous 
Urban/R&B 
97,192 
7,991 (8%)
None 
Status
UnlockedData Complete
80%External Links
