to approve it or not," recalls designer Robert Fisher. "I think it might just have been shot to management to approve or something." The single's cover features a teacup on a table next to a used ashtray, a cream pitcher and animal crackers. Critical reception Reviewing In Utero for Rolling Stone, Fricke wrote, "In the sepulchral folk intro of 'Penny Royal Tea,' Cobain almost sounds like Michael Stipe at the beginning of R.E.M.'s Drive'—before the heaving, fuzz-burnt chorus comes lashing down with a vengeance." In his review of the album for the NME, John Mulvey wrote that "Pennyroyal Tea" was "a terrific song – straightforward, insidious, oddly moving," but that "the guitars don't scream enough, the chorus doesn't tower like it should, and overall it's the one real 'Call Butch Vig' moment." Legacy In 2004, the NME ranked "Pennyroyal Tea" at number six on their list of the 20 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever. The same year, Q included the song on their list of 12 Album Tracks That Should Have Been Singles, But Weren't, at number two. In 2015, Rolling Stone placed it at number 11 on their ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. 2014 Record Store Day re-release On April 19, 2014, the "Pennyroyal Tea" single was re-released on 7-inch vinyl for Record Store Day 2014, limited to only 6000 copies. It was the top-selling vinyl single of Record Store Day in the US, reaching number 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles Sales Chart. Music video Dutch director Anton Corbijn was asked to direct a music video for "Pennyroyal Tea", but he refused, saying he did not believe he could make a video better than the one he had made for "Heart-Shaped Box", the first single from In Utero. American director Jeffery Plansker was enlisted as the director instead, but the planned video was abandoned after Cobain's death in April 1994. MTV Unplugged version Featuring only Cobain on vocals and guitar, the MTV Unplugged version of "Pennyroyal Tea" was the only solo performance of the concert. The band had tried different approaches to the song during the rehearsal earlier that day, performing it in a different key and with Smear on backing vocals. However, during the show Cobain decided to attempt it on his own, asking, "Am I going to do this by myself?" to which Grohl replied, "Do it by yourself", and Cobain joking that "if it sounds