ON THIS DAY IN 1993 - THE PENNYROYAL TEA SINGLE WAS WITHDRAWN AFTER COBAIN'S DEATH

On this day in 1993, Nirvana released an album containing a future single that would be manufactured, withdrawn and transformed into a rarity before its planned launch. 🎸

“Pennyroyal Tea” appeared on In Utero, the band’s uncompromising follow-up to Nevermind. As the album’s campaign continued, the song was prepared as a European single for spring 1994, with a Scott Litt remix chosen as the lead version. 📀

The planned German CD paired it with two additional tracks: “I Hate Myself and Want to Die” and Nirvana’s live performance of “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.” Artwork and physical copies were produced, putting the release beyond the planning stage and close to reaching record shops. 🍵

Then Kurt Cobain died in April 1994. The “Pennyroyal Tea” single was cancelled, and manufactured copies were recalled. The stark title of “I Hate Myself and Want to Die” has inevitably drawn attention in later retellings, but there is no conclusive evidence that it caused the withdrawal. The confirmed chronology is powerful enough: the single was ready, Cobain died, and the release was pulled. 🕯️

Most copies disappeared, but a small number of German CDs survived. Those discs became sought-after Nirvana collectibles—and, because of their rarity, targets for counterfeiters. What had been intended as another chapter in the In Utero campaign instead became an elusive artifact from the band’s final months. ⚠️

“Pennyroyal Tea” was never erased from the album, but its abandoned single release remains a haunting reminder that sometimes the records that vanish leave the longest echoes. 🖤

#musicOnOff #Nirvana #InUtero #PennyroyalTea #KurtCobain #Grunge #MusicHistory