Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is one of the most famous classic rock songs of the 1990s. During an interview, Amos revealed the song had a huge impact on her when she first heard it. In addition, she said the spirit of a piano had to convince her to cover “Smells Like Teen Spirit.”
Tori Amos felt spirits told her Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ could sound different
During a 2021 interview with Stereogum, Amos said she was taken aback when she first saw the video for “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” “I think for most people when they heard it for the first time, I hadn’t heard anything like that,” she said. “There was an energy to this song.
“While I was sitting there in the silence, the piano kind of just showed herself to me,” she added. “There wasn’t a physical piano, but sort of the spirits of the piano. And she said to me, ‘Listen, this song is so powerful and so strong that it can hold a different read. You really need to partner with me and trust me on this.’”
How the spirits of a piano supposedly convinced Tori Amos to record Nirvana’s song
Amos didn’t trust the spirits at first. “And I thought, ‘I don’t know about that, because this version is the thing that’s blowing me away,’” Amos remembered. “And she said, ‘You have to trust me on this. The song is that strong. It can hold a different read on this. Go into the vulnerability of it.’ And that was sort of the key for me to go into the vulnerability.”
Notably, Amos turned Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” into a piano ballad. While Kurt Cobain sang “Smells Like Teen Spirit” with ferocious confidence, Amos sings the song delicately. If her intention was to make the track sound vulnerable, she succeeded beautifully. While Amos never met Cobain, she felt like she connected to him through the tune.
How Tori Amos’ ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ performed on the charts in the United States
Amos included her version of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” on her EP Crucify as well as the deluxe edition of her album Little Earthquakes. Amos’ “Smells Like Teen Spirit” was never a single, so it did not chart on the Billboard Hot 100. It might’ve been a huge it if it was a single. Nirvana was at its peak as a band when Amos put out her cover, and piano ballads were huge in the 1990s. Had Amos’ “Smells Like Teen Spirit” been released to radio, it could have crossed over to multiple markets.
Amos’ “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is so far removed from the hard-rock genre of the original song. The chaotic fury of the original is turned into something slow and introspective. While some Nirvana fans feel Amos butchered Nirvana’s song, she actually did a great job showcasing the dark side of its lyrics.
Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is a great hard-rock song and Amos proved it works great as a ballad.
