Pennyroyal Tea
| "Pennyroyal Tea" | ||||||||||||
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| Single by Nirvana | ||||||||||||
| from the album In Utero | ||||||||||||
| B-side | "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" | |||||||||||
| Released | April 1994 (original cancelled release) April 19, 2014 (re-release) |
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| Format | CD, 7-inch vinyl | |||||||||||
| Recorded | February 13–26, 1993 at Pachyderm Recording Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota | |||||||||||
| Length | 3:36 | |||||||||||
| Label | Geffen | |||||||||||
| Writer(s) | Kurt Cobain | |||||||||||
| Producer(s) | Steve Albini | |||||||||||
| Nirvana singles chronology | ||||||||||||
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| 13 tracks |
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"Pennyroyal Tea" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the ninth track on the band's third and final studio album, In Utero (1993). The song was due to be released as the third single from In Utero in April 1994. However, after the death of Kurt Cobain in the same month, the planned release was cancelled. The single was re-released on limited edition 7 inch vinyl for Record Store Day in April 2014 and charted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales chart.
According to Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, "Pennyroyal Tea" was written by Cobain in 1990 in an Olympia, Washington, apartment he shared with Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl. "Dave and I were screwing around on a 4-track," said Cobain, "and I wrote that song in about thirty seconds. And I sat down for like half-an-hour and wrote the lyrics and then we recorded it." The band played the song live many times in 1991 and 1992. However, it did not receive studio treatment until 1993, when it was recorded by Steve Albini for the In Utero album. A remix by Scott Litt appears on the censored Wal-Mart and Kmart versions of In Utero; this remix is also available on the band's 2002 best-of compilation, Nirvana, and is, incidentally, the same mix that appeared on the single (see below).
The herb pennyroyal is sometimes used as an abortifacient. In Cobain's Journals, which was published posthumously in 2002, there is an entry where he explains the tracks on In Utero. The explanation given for "Pennyroyal Tea" simply reads: "herbal abortive... it doesn't work, you hippie."
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