10 Musicians Who Hate Their Own Songs
4. Nirvana - Smells Like Teen Spirit
If it's in any band's nature to hate their most successful song, then it's certainly Nirvana. Their anti-commercial ethos was at odds with Smells Like Teen Spirit's incredible popularity and it made performing it live uneasy for their legendary frontman.
"Everyone has focused on that song so much," Kurt Cobain said to Rolling Stone magazine in 1994 after they explicitly asked him why the band ended their performance without Teen Spirit in their setlist.
"The reason it gets a big reaction is people have seen it on MTV a million times. But I think there are so many other songs that I've written that are as good, if not better. I can barely, especially on a bad night, get through Teen Spirit. I literally want to throw my guitar down and walk away.”
What started as one of Cobain's favourites was eventually ruined for him by too much mainstream exposure. He felt like there was more to him and the band than that one song, and ultimately he was right about the fact that he has written many songs that are just as good. However, Teen Spirit still remains as one of Nirvana's, and rock's, most iconic and important songs.