10 Greatest Vocal Performances In Rock Music History

Kurt Cobain spent most of his professional career trying to outrun the shadow of Smells Like Teen Spirit. Although he was originally proud of the lyrics he wrote for this song, hearing so many people singing it night after night made him feel a lot more vulnerable, with the nuanced lyrics going right over the heads of many of the jocks in the audience. If you listen to the actual take of the song though, Kurt sounds like he's on the verge of insanity just trying to get through the song.

Wanting to keep it live in the studio most of the time, Kurt only let producer Butch Vig get a few vocal takes of the track before moving on, and this was the one that took the most out of him. As much as this song is looked at as the start of alternative rock in the mainstream, the tone in his voice is much more about frustration than anything else, becoming more and more fed up with everything on the radio and finding some way to be entertained other than the usual corporate schlock that's been shoved down our throats for the past few years.

By the time you get to the final chorus and hear Kurt screaming about a denial, it's almost like you can hear his vocal cords wanting to jump out of his throat, pushing his voice to the absolute brink and leaning into every single word he sings. In those 5 minutes that it took the song to play out, alternative rock was now king and that raspy baritone was about to become the voice of a whole new generation of rock fans.