Come as You Are

Kurt Cobain shaped the sound of "Come as You Are" with an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus pedal, which gave his guitar a watery, echoey tone during the verses and pre-choruses. The pedal became so closely tied to the song that it has been associated with it ever since. Written by Cobain for Nirvana's second album Nevermind, the track was one of the few new songs the group put down on a rehearsal tape sent to producer Butch Vig before the 1991 sessions. The band then recorded it with Vig at Sound City Studios in Van Nuys, California, in early 1991.

The sessions had their quirks. Cobain cut his guitar solo in two takes and sang three takes of vocals, with the first one used, before Vig asked him to double track his voice across the whole song. During a harmony overdub, Cobain accidentally sang the phrase "No, I don't have a gun" after the guitar solo. When the mistake was found, he chose to keep it. Vig also sampled Cobain singing "memoria" from the middle of the track and placed it twice near the end.

The single came out on February 18, 1992, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and number 9 on the UK Singles Chart, where it was the week's highest new entry. Cobain had worried the main riff resembled Killing Joke's "Eighties", and rumors of a copyright lawsuit circulated, though none was ever filed. In 1992, members of an English band also named Nirvana sued the American group over use of the name, reaching an out-of-court settlement.