Nirvana's final studio album, In Utero, marks its 30th anniversary today.
It was released on September 21st, 1993 and debuted at number-one on the Billboard 200 chart and went on to sell over five-million copies.
There were just 180,000 copies sold in its first week, which was less than expected for the follow-up to Nevermind. At the time it was thought that the album not being stocked in WalMart and K-Mart cut down on its sales. Both chains gave different reasons for not stocking it, but record industry insiders said that it was because both were wary of the back cover that featured models of unborn children.
Nirvana tabbed Steve Albini to produce the album, and he said that one of the most important parts of making the album was keeping it a secert. He booked a remote location, Pachyderm Studios In Cannon Falls, Minnesota, and booked the time under the name the Simon Ritchie Band, which was the real name of the Sex Pistols' Sid Vicious.
Dave Grohl revealed that Albini told the band that if any one of them beat him in a game of pool, he'd do the album for free. If Albini won, Nirvana would have to double his fee. Grohl said, "We were paying him $100,000. Anyone who’s got the stones to gamble something that large must be amazing, so everyone said no."
Albini's production caused a bit of conflict with the band's label, so R.E.M. producer Scott Litt was brought in to remix what would be the album's two singles -- "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies."
Courtney Love has said that "Heart-Shapd Box" is her favorite Nirvana song -- and claimed that Kurt Cobain wrote it about her vagina.
In Utero was reissued for its 20th anniversary on September 24th, 2013 in various configurations that featured a new mix of the album done by Steve Albini, plus all its B-sides, 11 demos and CD and DVD versions of the band's MTV special Live and Loud.
It will be reissued again for its 30th anniversary on October 27th of this year. A new five-CD, 8-LP or digital Super Deluxe Edition contains a newly remastered version of the original album plus five B-sides released in 1993 and 1994. The set also includes two previously unreleased concerts from The Forum in Los Angeles on December 30th, 1993 and the Seatlle Center Arena in Seattle on January 7th, 1994.
There's also a two-CD version that comes with a bonus live disc that features all the album's song's done live in Rome, New York City, Seattle and Los Angeles, plus electric versions of two covers released on MTV Unplugged -- The Vaselines' "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam" and David Bowie's "The Man Who Sold the World."