Tonight, Tonight

While still on tour in support of Siamese Dream, Billy Corgan booked the Smashing Pumpkins into a local Chicago studio to record all of the band's song ideas on tape, and it was there that work on "Tonight, Tonight" first began. Corgan had started writing for the follow-up to Siamese Dream after that album's tour, and the track ended up on the band's third album, Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, released in 1995. He later said on The Howard Stern Show that the song pays homage to Cheap Trick and is addressed to himself, a person who escaped an abusive childhood against all odds, written to keep him believing in himself.

The recording was produced by Corgan alongside Flood and Alan Moulder. In the original sessions the song was written in the key of C, but because Corgan could not sing it in that form, he reworked it during the Mellon Collie sessions to suit his range. He arranged the strings with Audrey Riley, and they were recorded with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Corgan called the experience of recording with the 30-piece string section one of the most exciting recording experiences he had ever had.

Released as the album's fourth single on May 6, 1996, the song reached number one in Iceland and number seven on the UK Singles Chart, and it was certified Gold in the United Kingdom and Platinum in New Zealand. A shorter acoustic version, "Tonite Reprise", appeared among the single's six B-sides. The single later surfaced in extended form on the 1996 box set The Aeroplane Flies High.