All Apologies

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"All Apologies"

Single by Nirvana
from the album In Utero
B-side(s)	"Moist Vagina"
Released	December 1993
Format	???
Recorded	at Pachyderm Studios, Cannon Falls, Minnesota, February, 1993
Genre	Grunge
Length	10 min 13 s
Label	DGC
Producer(s)	Steve Albini
Chart positions
#1 Modern Rock (US) #32 (UK) #20 (FRA) #20 (IRE)
Nirvana singles chronology
"Heart-Shaped Box" (1993)	"All Apologies/Rape Me" (1993)	"Pennyroyal Tea" (1994)
In Utero track listing
"tourette's" (11)	"All Apologies" (12)	("Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip") (12 - hidden track, only European pressings)

"All Apologies" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana. It is the twelfth song on, and the second single (along with "Rape Me") from, their 1993 album, In Utero.

1 History
2 Meaning
3 Covers
4 Trivia
5 Track listing
6 Chart Positions
7 Accolades
8 References

Usually seen as a swan song of sorts, "All Apologies" was actually written in 1990, four years before the death of its author, Kurt Cobain, and the subsequent dissolution of Nirvana.

The earliest known studio version of the song was recorded on January 1, 1991 by Craig Montgomery in Seattle, Washington. The song's lyrics and arrangement were refined several times over the next two years, with no two pre-In Utero live renditions sounding alike. The earliest versions of the song, including the 1991 studio version, even feature an additional verse and chorus.

The In Utero version was recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It features Kera Schaley on cello. It was remixed, along with "Heart-Shaped Box" and later "Pennyroyal Tea," by Scott Litt prior to the album's release, mostly because the band believed the vocals and bass were not loud enough in the original mixes. [1]

"All Apologies" was released alongside "Rape Me" as the In Utero's second single, but since an accompanying music video was never made (as protest for the way that the group's label refused to allow them to film a video for "Rape Me"), it was promoted on MTV using footage from the band's then-recent MTV Unplugged performance.

The Unplugged version, which features Lori Goldston on cello, appears on the band's 1994 album MTV Unplugged in New York. This version was also included on their 2002 "best-of" compilation album, Nirvana.

An acoustic demo appears on the band's rareties box set, With the Lights Out released in 2004 and on the compilation album, Sliver: The Best of the Box released in 2005 . It is believed to have been recorded sometime in 1991 or 1992. [2]

Like many Nirvana songs, "All Apologies" is defined not so much by a specific meaning as by the mood and atmosphere it communicates.

The aforementioned January 1991 studio version of the song features an upbeat arrangement and even a tambourine, suggesting that at first, Cobain saw it as simply a catchy pop song. By the time it was recorded for In Utero, however, the song had adopted a darker tone, giving a certain finality to lyrics such as the chorus refrain of "In the sun I feel as one - married/ buried."

Still, even the final version of the song ends on what can be considered an uplifting note, with the chanted refrain of "All in all is all we all are" sung over the song's feedback-laden guitar riff in a manner reminiscent of the "Jai Guru Deva" mantra which closes The Beatles' "Across the Universe."

Cobain dedicated "All Apologies" to his wife Courtney Love and daughter Frances Bean during Nirvana's appearance at the Reading Festival in 1992.

"All Apologies" has been covered by the following artists:

Irish singer Sinéad O'Connor (on Universal Mother)
American jazz musician Herbie Hancock
Canadian punk rock band D.O.A.
American Christian rock band dc Talk
British rock band Placebo
American punk band Finch
French band Aston Villa
British singer-songwriter Kathryn Williams
British band Coldplay.
American alternative metal band Breaking Benjamin.
Yellowcard

The dc Talk version replaces the lyric "Everyone is gay" with "Jesus is the way." Versions of the song are performed in a wide variety of genres. For example, namely the one recorded by D.O.A., are played very fast-paced and sung very loud, making it sound more like late-1990's punk/rock.

"All Apologies" was nominated for a Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1995, but lost to Aerosmith's "Crazy."
"All Apologies", both the version from In Utero and Unplugged in New York, were featured in the Six Feet Under episode "All Alone".
"All Apologies" went under several titles including "LaLaLa - Alternateen Anthem," and finally "All Apologies."
"All Apologies" is also the name of a Nirvana tribute album released on May 10, 2006. The album includes covers of Nirvana songs performed by 13 Japanese rock bands, including miyavi, B-DASH, and others. The title track is performed by LUNKHEAD.

The following songs appear on the single:

A. "All Apologies" (Cobain) - 3:50
A. "Rape Me" (Cobain) - 2:49
B. "Moist Vagina" (Cobain) - 3:34

Some versions of the single list "Moist Vagina" as "MV."

Year	Single	Chart	Position
1993	All Apologies	Modern Rock Tracks (US)	No. 1
1993	All Apologies	Hawaiian Island Charts	No. 1
1993	All Apologies	Polish Airplay Charts	No. 2
1994	All Apologies	Latvian Airplay Charts	No. 3
1993	All Apologies	Mainstream Rock Tracks (US)	No. 4
1993	All Apologies/Rape Me	Official Irish Singles Chart	No. 20
1993	All Apologies/Rape Me	Official New Zealand Singles Chart	No. 20
1993	All Apologies/Rape Me	Official French Singles Chart	No. 20
1993	All Apologies	French Airplay Chart	No. 21
1993	All Apologies/Rape Me	Official UK Singles Chart	No. 32
1993	All Apologies/Rape Me	Official Australian Singles Chart	No. 58
1994	All Apologies/Rape Me	Hot 100 Brazil	No. 94
1994	All Apologies	Hot 100 Airplay (US)	No. ?

Ranked #3 in NME's "Top 20 Nirvana Songs" (2004)
Ranked #1 in Q's "10 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever" (2004)
Ranked #455 in Rolling Stone's "The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" (2004)

Azerrad, Michael. Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, Doubleday, New York: 1993, ISBN 0-86369-746-1
Dark Side Of The Womb: Part 1 by the Stud Brothers, Melody Maker, August 1993