10 Greatest Cover Songs In Rock Music History
3. Where Did You Sleep Last Night - Nirvana
Compared to the other entries in MTV Unplugged, there's something oddly haunting about Nirvana's appearance in MTV's studios back in the early '90s. Since this would eventually be a few months before Kurt Cobain's tragic suicide, there's definitely a mournful quality about the program, especially when you see the big lilies surrounding the stage. What really threw people for a loop though was just how much passion the show closed with.
Being Kurt's baby, much of the setlist was a collection of Nirvana originals mixed in with some covers, including a stellar version of David Bowie's The Man Who Sold the World. If we're talking the best from a raw performance standpoint though, Kurt belting out Where Did You Sleep Last Night by Leadbelly might go down as one of the most emotional moments of his career.
It also benefits from having this be filmed in front of a live audience as well, as we get to see Kurt reach further and further up in his register, to the point where he's practically screaming by the end of the song. For a moment before the song ends though, we get to see Kurt's eyes, which seem both passionate and scared all at the same time. These are the moments that make people say Kurt was a genius. Even though he shied away from being called the voice of a generation, that's the face of having some power that you can't fully control.