108 Fun Facts About 90s Rock

Nirvana's Nevermind hit number one in January 1992 by knocking which album off the top?

Dangerous fell to an album its label had expected to sell only modestly; Nevermind went on to sell over ten million copies in the US.

Who produced Nirvana's Nevermind, giving it a far more polished, radio-friendly sound than Bleach?

Butch Vig had recorded Nirvana's 1990 Smart Studios demos, which won him the Nevermind job; he later played drums in Garbage.

The swimming baby on the Nevermind cover, who sued the band in 2021, is named what?

Spencer Elden landed the shoot because his father, who built sets and rigging for photo shoots, was a friend of photographer Kirk Weddle.

Nirvana left Sub Pop and released Nevermind on which label?

DGC, short for the David Geffen Company, already had Sonic Youth, a band Cobain admired, and Kim Gordon helped steer Nirvana there.

Which indie producer recorded Nirvana's In Utero in two weeks in February 1993?

Steve Albini charged a flat fee and refused any royalty, insisting that paying a producer points was ethically indefensible.

Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love were married in February 1992 in which location?

Waikiki Beach in Honolulu hosted the ceremony on 24 February 1992, days after Nirvana's Pacific Rim tour ended; their daughter Frances Bean was born that August.

Which fellow frontman was chosen as godfather to Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love's daughter?

Michael Stipe had arranged for Cobain to fly out and record with him in 1994, but Cobain called at the last minute to say he couldn't come.

Kurt Cobain wanted the MTV Unplugged set, with its lilies, black candles and chandelier, to look like what?

A funeral was what Cobain asked for, hence the stargazer lilies, black candles and crystal chandelier; the show was taped in a single take on 18 November 1993, less than five months before his death.

Members of which band joined Nirvana on stage for several songs at the MTV Unplugged taping in 1993?

Meat Puppets were touring with Nirvana at the time, and Cris and Curt Kirkwood sat in on three songs from their 1984 album Meat Puppets II.

Pearl Jam played its first shows under which earlier band name?

Mookie Blaylock was an NBA guard, and the band kept a nod to him after renaming: the album title Ten is his jersey number.

Which Pearl Jam album set a first-week US sales record when it came out in October 1993?

Vs. sold 950,378 copies in its first week even though Pearl Jam refused to make a music video for any of its singles.

In 1994 Pearl Jam accused which company of monopolising concert tickets?

Ticketmaster drew a Justice Department grievance and congressional testimony from Pearl Jam, which toured in 1995 through a rival ticketing firm instead.

Which 1994 Soundgarden album debuted at number one and produced two Grammy-winning singles?

Superunknown entered the Billboard 200 at number one in March 1994; Spoonman and Black Hole Sun won Grammys, and Soundgarden had been the first grunge band to sign with a major label, A&M, in 1988.

Which 1994 Alice in Chains release became the first EP ever to debut at number one on the Billboard 200?

Jar of Flies started as an acoustic session with no songs planned, and the band never meant to release it until their label heard the tapes.

Which album became the first from Seattle's grunge scene to be certified gold, in September 1991?

Facelift had sold under 40,000 copies in six months until MTV put Man in the Box into daytime rotation; the RIAA certified it gold in September 1991.

Stone Temple Pilots won the 1994 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance for which song from Core?

Plush won that Grammy even though Rolling Stone had dismissed it in 1993 as embarrassingly Pearl Jam-like.

Under which name did Stone Temple Pilots put out its 1990 demo?

Mighty Joe Young was dropped only weeks before the debut album came out, when an old bluesman turned out to own the name.

Which R.E.M. single from Out of Time was the band's highest-charting and best-selling hit?

Losing My Religion borrows a Southern expression for losing one's temper or composure, not one's faith.

Which Mellon Collie single gave the Smashing Pumpkins their highest Billboard Hot 100 peak?

1979 nearly missed the album: producer Flood called the unfinished demo not good enough and was ready to drop it, until Corgan finished it.

Radiohead recorded much of OK Computer at St Catherine's Court, a mansion owned by which actress?

Jane Seymour's mansion shaped the sound: Thom Yorke sang Exit Music (For a Film) on its stone staircase for the natural reverb.

Under what name did Radiohead first play, referring to their usual school rehearsal day?

On a Friday, the day the five rehearsed in Abingdon School's music room, was their name until they signed to EMI in late 1991 and became Radiohead after a Talking Heads song.

Weezer's 1994 Blue Album was produced by the frontman of which band?

The Cars' Ric Ocasek got the job after the label insisted on a producer and Rivers Cuomo heard the Cars' Just What I Needed in a grocery store.

Weezer's Buddy Holly video put the band inside which classic sitcom?

Happy Days footage surrounds the band at Arnold's Drive-In, and Microsoft later put the video on the Windows 95 CD-ROM.

Beck's breakthrough hit Loser starts its chorus in which language before switching to English?

Spanish: soy un perdedor means I'm a loser, and Beck later regretted refusing 'Weird Al' Yankovic permission to parody the song.

Which single from Beck's Odelay won Best Male Rock Vocal Performance at the 1997 Grammys?

Where It's At takes its title and spoken snippets from a sex-education record, Sex for Teens (Where It's At).

Which guest played the one guitar part Dave Grohl didn't on the 1995 Foo Fighters debut?

Greg Dulli of the Afghan Whigs was just watching Grohl record when Grohl asked if he wanted to play and handed him a guitar.

The name Foo Fighters comes from a World War II term for what?

UFO sightings by Allied pilots were nicknamed foo fighters in the war; Grohl took the name hoping to stay anonymous with a limited-run release.

After signing a major-label deal for Dookie, Green Day was banned from which Berkeley punk club?

924 Gilman Street's no-major-labels rule shut Green Day out, yet Dookie went on to sell over 20 million copies in the US.

Green Day's Woodstock '94 set became infamous for what?

A mud fight broke out as fans pelted the band and invaded the stage, and security mistook mud-covered bassist Mike Dirnt for a stage crasher and tackled him.

Which independent label released The Offspring's 1994 album Smash?

Epitaph saw Smash go multi-platinum, yet The Offspring left the label for Columbia in 1996.

In the August 1995 'Battle of Britpop', Blur's Country House outsold which Oasis single?

Roll with It lost a head-to-head that Blur's label set up by moving Country House's release to the same day.

Oasis's two Knebworth shows in August 1996 each drew an audience of roughly how many people?

125,000 came each night, and footage shot at the gigs became the 2021 documentary film Oasis Knebworth 1996.

A 1970s Canadian group owned the name, so Bush released Sixteen Stone in Canada as what?

BushX was needed because Domenic Troiano's Bush, a band that broke up in 1970 after releasing one album, still owned the name in Canada.

Which Live song topped Billboard's Mainstream Rock chart for ten weeks?

Lightning Crashes came off Throwing Copper, a slow burner that only reached number one in May 1995, more than a year after its release.

Metallica hired Bob Rock to produce the Black Album after admiring his work on which Mötley Crüe record?

Dr. Feelgood was Mötley Crüe's only number-one album, and its sound won Bob Rock a partnership that lasted four more Metallica albums.

Where was the self-immolating monk photo on Rage Against the Machine's 1992 debut cover taken?

Saigon was where monk Thích Quảng Đức burned himself at a busy intersection in 1963, protesting South Vietnam's persecution of Buddhists.

Before Tool took off, singer Maynard James Keenan supported himself in Los Angeles doing what job?

Pet store remodeler: Keenan had studied art and moved to Los Angeles for design work, while future bandmates Adam Jones and Paul D'Amour hoped to work in film.

Nu metal pioneers Korn came from which California city?

Bakersfield honoured the band in 2006 by naming a road near its downtown arena Korn Row.

Which Nine Inch Nails album was recorded at 10050 Cielo Drive, where Sharon Tate was murdered?

The Downward Spiral was made in the Tate murder house, but Reznor moved out after Sharon Tate's sister Patti asked if he was exploiting her death.

Which of the Grammys' four big awards did Alanis Morissette win in 1996?

Album of the Year went to a former Canadian teen pop star, who had released two dance-pop albums at home before Jagged Little Pill.

Hole's Live Through This came out on 12 April 1994, how long after Kurt Cobain died?

One week: Cobain died days before the release, though Hole had recorded the album months earlier, in October 1993.

Steve Marker discovered Shirley Manson after seeing an Angelfish video on which MTV show?

120 Minutes was what Marker was watching in search of a singer, and after seeing the video, Garbage got in touch with Manson.

Tragic Kingdom was the last No Doubt album to feature which founding member, who left in 1994?

Eric Stefani, Gwen's older brother, had drawn for The Simpsons since 1989, and after quitting he went back to animating full-time.

PJ Harvey recorded Rid of Me (1993) at Pachyderm Studio, later used for In Utero, in which US state?

Minnesota's Pachyderm later fell into disrepair and foreclosure, until a new owner bought it in 2011 and renovated it.

Before her solo career, Sheryl Crow toured from 1987 to 1989 as a backing vocalist for which superstar?

Michael Jackson's Bad World Tour was Crow's big break: she gatecrashed the 1987 auditions and sang backing vocals for him until 1989.

Lollapalooza began in 1991 as a farewell tour for which band?

Jane's Addiction split in 1991, but Perry Farrell's farewell tour lived on as a travelling summer festival for years afterwards.

Woodstock '94 was held on Winston Farm near which New York town?

Saugerties' Winston Farm drew an estimated 350,000 people as gatecrashers breached the fences.

Woodstock '99 was staged at the former Griffiss Air Force Base in which New York city?

Rome's Griffiss Air Force Base had closed in 1995, and the festival held on its grounds ended in rioting, looting and arson.

The Woodstock '99 bonfires grew from vigil candles honouring victims of which tragedy?

Columbine's victims were to be honoured with candles handed out by an anti-gun-violence group during the Chili Peppers' closing set; instead the candles lit plywood and trash, and fires spread across the grounds.

Metallica sued Napster in April 2000 after a demo of which song leaked before release?

I Disappear was meant for the Mission: Impossible 2 soundtrack, but a demo reached radio early, and Metallica traced the leak to Napster.

U2 began recording Achtung Baby in October 1990 at Hansa Studios in which city?

Berlin's Hansa sessions nearly broke U2 up over arguments about musical direction, until an improvised jam produced the song One.

U2's Zoo TV stage used a lighting rig partly built from which East German car?

Trabants had become symbols of communism's fall that U2 grew fond of, so tour designer Willie Williams made them part of the lighting rig.

Scott Stapp wrote that Creed first performed in a Tallahassee bar under what name?

Naked Toddler was soon dropped, and manager Jeff Hanson signed the renamed Creed after hearing two strong originals among its covers.

Which absent artist did the unknown Counting Crows fill in for at the 1993 Rock Hall ceremony?

Van Morrison skipped his own 1993 induction, and playing his Caravan in his place was the appearance that first brought Counting Crows to public notice.

Sublime's mascot Lou Dog was what breed?

Dalmatian Lou Dog appeared in the Santeria video, and during the shoot he bit actor Tom Lister Jr.

Sublime's self-titled album came out roughly how long after singer Bradley Nowell's death?

Two months: the band split after Nowell's death and could never tour the album, yet it sold more than five million copies.

Dave Matthews was working as a bartender in which Virginia city when he formed his band in 1991?

Charlottesville's Miller's bar employed Matthews, and a lawyer friend, Ross Hoffman, talked him into recording a demo and approaching drummer Carter Beauford.

Rob Thomas won three Grammys, including Record of the Year, for singing on which Santana single?

Smooth grew out of Itaal Shur's song Room 17, and Rob Thomas rewrote it without planning to sing it, even suggesting George Michael.

Nirvana's Smells Like Teen Spirit took its title from graffiti about which drugstore product?

Deodorant was the joke: Kathleen Hanna of Bikini Kill wrote that Kurt Cobain smelled like Teen Spirit, a brand name he mistook for a revolutionary slogan.

Which 1992 comedy sent Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody back up the Hot 100 to a new peak of number two?

Wayne's World put the song in a car full of headbanging friends, lifting it past its 1976 peak of number nine sixteen years later.

Which hard rock band released two albums, Use Your Illusion I and II, on the same day in 1991?

Guns N' Roses became the first act to enter the US album chart at numbers one and two, with Use Your Illusion II outselling its twin.

Which Cranberries hit was written after an IRA bombing killed two children in Warrington, England?

Zombie outlasted the conflict it mourned: in April 2020 it became the first song by an Irish group to pass a billion views on YouTube.

Which Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist played on Alanis Morissette's breakthrough hit You Oughta Know?

Flea thought the original bassline weak when he first heard the track, so he and guitarist Dave Navarro, recruited in early 1995, jammed new parts over her vocal.

Which teenage actress starred in three early-1990s Aerosmith videos: Cryin', Amazing and Crazy?

Alicia Silverstone was cast after the director saw her in The Crush; Liv Tyler, the singer's 16-year-old daughter, joined her only for Crazy.

Which Oasis single takes its title from a 1968 film soundtrack album by George Harrison?

Wonderwall nods to Wonderwall Music, the Beatle's first solo album; Noel Gallagher said the song was about an imaginary friend who comes to save you from yourself.

Which Soul Asylum hit had a 1993 video showing the names and photographs of real missing children?

Runaway Train showed different children in each region where it aired, and 21 or more of those pictured were later found.

Which band's 1993 video for No Rain followed a tap-dancing girl in a homemade bee costume?

Blind Melon modelled the Bee Girl on its own album cover, an old family photograph of the drummer's younger sister in costume.

Which British star's 1992 MTV Unplugged album sold 26 million copies, the most of any live album?

Eric Clapton slowed Layla from an anguished howl to an easy shuffle for the set, which went on to win three Grammys in 1993.

Which South Carolina band's debut Cracked Rear View went platinum more than twenty times over?

Hootie & the Blowfish started out playing fraternity houses around the University of South Carolina, where two of the members met as freshmen.

Which Boston hard rock band topped the Hot 100 in 1991 with the acoustic ballad More Than Words?

Extreme scored the hit with only Nuno Bettencourt's acoustic guitar and Gary Cherone's voice, a world away from the band's usual funk-tinged hard rock.

In which city did Billy Corgan form the Smashing Pumpkins in 1988 after moving back from Florida?

Chicago was his hometown: he took a job in a record store there, and the group played its first show as a duo at a Polish bar in July 1988.

Which city opened the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame museum, designed by architect I. M. Pei, in 1995?

Cleveland won the museum by pledging $65 million and arguing that a local disc jockey, Alan Freed, had coined the term rock and roll.

Which Red Hot Chili Peppers ballad began as a poem Anthony Kiedis was reluctant to share?

Under the Bridge was spotted in his notebook by producer Rick Rubin, who talked him round; it went on to peak at number two on the Hot 100.

Which actress played the dead woman Tom Petty takes home in the video for Mary Jane's Last Dance?

Kim Basinger was Petty's own choice for the corpse, opposite him as a morgue assistant; the clip won Best Male Video at the 1994 MTV awards.

No Doubt's Don't Speak was rewritten from a love song after the singer's split from which musician?

Tony Kanal, the band's bassist, had dated her for seven years; the song then topped US radio airplay for 16 weeks without going on sale there as a single.

Which Rage Against the Machine member earned a Harvard degree, then briefly worked for a US senator?

Tom Morello took his degree in social studies, and his unhappy spell in Senator Alan Cranston's office put him off a career in politics for good.

A 1992 pyrotechnics blast badly burned Metallica's James Hetfield on stage in which Canadian city?

Montreal's Olympic Stadium saw the charge go off during Fade to Black; his guitar took part of the blast, and he was back on stage 17 days later.

Which stage name did Marilyn Manson's bassist build from a female star and a serial killer?

Twiggy Ramirez joined the English model Twiggy to the killer Richard Ramirez; until 1996 every member took a female star's first name and a murderer's surname, the singer included.

Temple of the Dog formed as a tribute to Andrew Wood, the late singer of which Seattle band?

Mother Love Bone's Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament played on the tribute album beside guest singer Eddie Vedder, months before the three broke through as Pearl Jam.

Which Texas metal band's Far Beyond Driven debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 in 1994?

Pantera took groove metal to the top of the album chart, and a Black Sabbath cover on the record, Planet Caravan, gave the band its first charting US single.

Which 4 Non Blondes singer later wrote Beautiful for Christina Aguilera and hits for Pink?

Linda Perry saw her own band fall apart in late 1994 while recording a second album, then built a second career writing and producing for other singers.

Which former teenage music journalist directed Singles, a 1992 romance set amid Seattle grunge?

Cameron Crowe cast three members of Pearl Jam as the bandmates of Matt Dillon's character, and called the film a love letter to Seattle.

Which singer's Stay (I Missed You) made her the first to top the Hot 100 without a record deal?

Lisa Loeb owed the break to her neighbour, actor Ethan Hawke, who passed a tape to Ben Stiller for the Reality Bites soundtrack and then directed the video.

Which skate shoe company became title sponsor of the Warped Tour, a punk festival begun in 1995?

Vans signed on after the first summer, and the renamed festival then crossed the United States and Canada every year until 2019.

Which Pixies bassist fronted the Breeders, the side project that scored a 1993 hit with Cannonball?

Kim Deal sang its opening through a harmonica microphone for the distorted sound, with her twin sister Kelley playing lead guitar.

Which feminist punk movement began in Olympia, Washington, around bands such as Bikini Kill?

Riot grrrl took shape in 1991, after women from Olympia and Washington, D.C. met to talk about the sexism in their local punk scenes.

Which singer of the 1994 album Grace drowned in 1997 while swimming in a Mississippi tributary?

Jeff Buckley finished only that one studio album; he had moved to Memphis to work on a second and went swimming while waiting for his band to arrive.

Which touring band of three decades split up in 1995 after the death of guitarist Jerry Garcia?

Grateful Dead managed just one Top 40 hit in all that time, Touch of Grey, yet stayed among America's highest-grossing live acts.

Which AC/DC hit, the lead single from the 1990 album The Razors Edge, topped the chart in Finland?

Thunderstruck started, the band's lead guitarist wrote in the notes to the album's reissue, from a little trick he had on the guitar.

The Black Crowes broke through covering Hard to Handle, first recorded by which soul singer?

Otis Redding co-wrote the song, but his version came out as a B-side in 1968, shortly after his death; the Black Crowes' cover climbed to number 26 on the Hot 100.

R.E.M. named which album after the motto of Weaver D's, an eatery in Athens, Georgia?

Automatic for the People dressed several of its songs, Everybody Hurts among them, in strings arranged by Led Zeppelin's former bassist John Paul Jones.

Radiohead had to share the writing credit for Creep with the authors of which hit for the Hollies?

The Air That I Breathe shares a chord progression and melody with Creep, so its publisher took legal action and won Albert Hammond and Mike Hazlewood a cut.

Which Australian trio were just 15 years old when their 1995 debut album Frogstomp came out?

Silverchair formed at school in Newcastle, New South Wales, as Innocent Criminals, and all five of their studio albums entered the Australian chart at number one.

Which Manic Street Preachers guitarist vanished in February 1995 and was declared dead in 2008?

Richey Edwards wrote many of the band's lyrics; his car turned up abandoned at a service station on the River Severn, and the others carried on as a three-piece.

Which English actor, the star of Quadrophenia, spoke the verses on Blur's 1994 single Parklife?

Phil Daniels had never heard of the band when he was asked, and chose a cut of the royalties over a fee paid upfront.

Which Evan Dando band covered Mrs. Robinson to mark the 25th anniversary of The Graduate?

The Lemonheads were asked to record it to promote the film's video release, and it brought the band more exposure than anything before it.

Which Canadian rocker topped the UK chart for 16 straight weeks with a 1991 Robin Hood ballad?

Bryan Adams broke a British record that had stood since 1955, when Slim Whitman's Rose Marie managed eleven weeks at the top.

Which veteran rocker, nicknamed the Godfather of Grunge, made the album Mirror Ball with Pearl Jam?

Neil Young earned the title for the distorted guitar of his Crazy Horse records, and Eddie Vedder inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame the year Mirror Ball came out.

Aerosmith first topped the Hot 100 with I Don't Want to Miss a Thing, the theme to which 1998 film?

Armageddon starred Liv Tyler, the singer's daughter, and its power ballad came from Diane Warren, who had pictured Celine Dion singing it.

Green Day's ballad Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) played in a 1998 clip show of which sitcom?

Seinfeld used it in its second-to-last episode; Billie Joe Armstrong had written the song in 1993, in anger, about a girlfriend who moved to Ecuador.

The Verve lost all royalties from Bitter Sweet Symphony over a sample of which band's song?

The Rolling Stones' Mick Jagger and Keith Richards held the songwriting credit until 2019, when they signed their rights over to singer Richard Ashcroft.

Goo Goo Dolls wrote Iris, an 18-week US radio airplay number one, for the soundtrack of which film?

City of Angels had its producers screen a first edit for musicians to inspire songs; the result was kept off the Hot 100 itself until a rule change in December 1998.

Which band's 1999 hit All Star featured in Mystery Men before opening the first Shrek film?

Smash Mouth were meant to be a placeholder: the animators planned to swap in an original song for the credits, then kept the hit.

Metallica recorded the 1999 live album S&M with which city's symphony, conducted by Michael Kamen?

San Francisco's symphony got the call seven years after Kamen first suggested the idea, having arranged the orchestral parts for Nothing Else Matters.

Which George Michael hit did Limp Bizkit cover on a debut album, against the producer's wishes?

Faith had been winning over crowds at the band's live shows, so it went onto Three Dollar Bill, Y'all though Ross Robinson tried to talk the group out of it.

Travis Barker left which band of masked, self-styled superheroes to join Blink-182 in 1998?

The Aquabats gave him the stage name Baron Von Tito, for reasons no member can now recall; a year after leaving he was on Enema of the State.

Which Blur single, meant as a joke on the record company, made the US modern rock top ten in 1997?

Song 2 was only a working title marking its place as the album's second track, but the name stuck; it runs for two minutes and two seconds.

Pearl Jam hit number two on the Hot 100 with a 1999 charity cover of which 1960s teen tragedy song?

Last Kiss was written by Wayne Cochran, whose 1961 original went nowhere on the charts; the cover helped raise about $10 million for Kosovo relief.