Lithium Song

Verified Timeline

Lore & Background

Written in 1990, "Lithium" was debuted at a video session at the Evergreen State College's television studio in Olympia, Washington on March 20, 1990. The full session, which also included versions of three songs from the band's 1989 debut album, Bleach, was directed by Jon Snyder and conceived by Cobain as a potential video release. It featured the band performing live while a montage of television footage taped by Cobain at home played in the background. To date, no full songs from this session have been officially released by Nirvana's record company, although videos for "Lithium" and "School," edited by Snyder and featuring additional footage and still photos, appeared on two episodes of 1200 Seconds, a television show produced by Evergreen students. The episodes aired in the fall of 1990 on a local community access cable station. The song was added to Nirvana's setlist soon after, over a year before the release of Nevermind. Kim Thayil, guitarist of Seattle rock band Soundgarden, recalled hearing it for the first time during Nirvana's show at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle on November 25, 1990, saying that "when I heard 'Lithium,' it stuck in my mind. Ben, our bass player, came up to me and said, 'That's the hit. That's the Top 40 hit right there.'"

In Their Own Story

In April 1990, "Lithium" was recorded by Butch Vig at Smart Studios in Madison, Wisconsin, during the recording sessions for what was intended to be a second album for the band's original label, Sub Pop. However, the release was abandoned after the departure of drummer Chad Channing later that year, and the eight-song session was instead circulated as a demo tape, which helped generate interest with the band among major labels. On September 25, 1990, Cobain performed a solo acoustic version of the song on the Boy Meets Girl show, hosted by Calvin Johnson, on KAOS (FM) in Olympia, Washington. The song was re-recorded by Vig in May 1991 at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, during the sessions for what became Nirvana's second album and major-label debut, Nevermind. Preliminary attempts at recording the song's instruments were unsuccessful, in part because the band was having a difficult time maintaining a steady tempo, and kept speeding up. After one failed take, the band abandoned the song as a "frustrated" Cobain began playing the song, "Endless, Nameless" instead. This version of "Endless, Nameless" was released as the album's hidden track. The band's timing problems were immediately solved when their new drummer, Dave Grohl, took Vig's advice to play with a metronome; it was the only track from the album to be recorded to a click track.

Reader's Guide

"Lithium" was released as the third single from Nevermind on July 13, 1992, peaking at number 64 on the US Billboard Hot 100 and number 11 on the UK Singles Chart. It also reached number one in Finland and the top five in Ireland and Portugal. The accompanying music video, directed by American filmmaker Kevin Kerslake, is a compilation of live footage from the band's October 31, 1991, concert at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle, Washington, and from the completed but then-unreleased film, 1991: The Year Punk Broke. Featuring a cover photo by Cobain, the single contained a sonogram of the musician's then-unborn child Frances Bean Cobain, as well as full lyrics for all the songs on Nevermind. Cassette, CD, 12-inch vinyl, and British 12-inch vinyl picture disc editions included "Curmudgeon" and a live version of "Been a Son" (performed on Halloween the previous year) as B-sides. The British 7-inch and cassette featured only "Curmudgeon" as an extra track, while the UK CD release added a cover of the Wipers' "D-7" recorded for BBC Radio 1 disc jockey John Peel's program in 1990. "Lithium" was performed live at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards on September 9, 1992, in Los Angeles. Cobain had wanted to play the then-unreleased song "Rape Me" instead, but this was met with resistance from MTV, who wanted the band to play "Smells Like Teen Spirit." Cobain agreed to play "Lithium" as a compromise. The performance, which featured Cobain playing a short part of "Rape Me" at the beginning "just to give [MTV] a little heart palpitation," ended with Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic being struck by his bass after throwing it into the air and attempting to catch it unsuccessfully. The final live version of "Lithium" was at Nirvana's last show, on March 1, 1994, at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany.

Did You Know?

• "Lithium" was one of three tracks on Nevermind to be recorded to a click track, along with "Smells Like Teen Spirit" and "In Bloom," after Dave Grohl took Butch Vig's advice to use a metronome to fix the band's timing pr
• The vocals for the song's verses were recorded in two takes, with the second take being used as the master vocal track, although Vig used the second line of the second verse from take one.
• The single's cover featured a sonogram of Kurt Cobain himself, not his then-unborn child Frances Bean Cobain.
• Kim Thayil of Soundgarden heard "Lithium" for the first time at Nirvana's show at the Off Ramp Cafe in Seattle on November 25, 1990, and his bass player Ben Shepherd immediately called "Lithium" "the hit."
• The final live performance of "Lithium" was at Nirvana's last show on March 1, 1994, at Terminal 1 in Munich, Germany.