Come as You Are is a song by Nirvana, written by frontman and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the third track and the second single from the band’s second studio album Nevermind, released in March 2, 1992.
It was the band’s second and final American top 40 hit, reaching number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100, and second UK top 10 hit, reaching number nine on the UK Singles Chart. The single reached the top 10 in eight countries and the top 40 in eleven further countries.
The unexpected success of the album’s lead single, Smells Like Teen Spirit drew Nirvana to mainstream success, with Nevermind being released two weeks after the single’s release.
Following the album’s release, the band and its management company debated whether to release Come as You Are or In Bloom as the next single from the album due to Cobain‘s concerns over similarity of the former with the Killing Joke song Eighties (1984).
After some persuasion by the management company, Cobain agreed to release Come as You Are as the second single because of its commercial potential. Killing Joke were upset over the song, and there were rumors that a lawsuit had been filed over the song, though the suit never materialized.
Killing Joke guitarist Geordie Walker was said to be upset about the whole situation, and he felt that Nirvana (which according to Walker denied the connection between the songs) handled the matter poorly.
Similarities between Come as You Are and Life Goes On by the Damned have also been noted. The music video for Come as You Are was directed by Kevin Kerslake, who drew inspiration for it from the cover artwork of Nevermind.
Rolling Stone ranked Come as You Are 445th on its list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time, and it placed 452nd on the 2010 edition of the list.
Tracklist:
- Come as You Are
- Endless, Nameless
- School (Live)
- Drain You (Live)
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain: vocals, acoustic guitar, electric guitar
Krist Novoselic: bass guitar
Dave Grohl: drums
Technical
Butch Vig: recording, mixing engineer, producer
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994).
