"Pennyroyal Tea" is a song by the American rock band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It is the ninth track on the band's third and final studio album, In Utero, released in 1993. The song was due to be released as the third single from In Utero in April 1994, but the single was recalled following Cobain's death the same month. The single was re-released, on limited edition 7 inch vinyl, for Record Store Day in April 2014, and charted at number 1 on the Billboard Hot Singles Sales chart. Origin and recording Early history According to Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography, Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana, "Pennyroyal Tea" was written by Cobain in 1990 in an Olympia, Washington apartment he shared with Nirvana drummer, Dave Grohl. "Dave and I were screwing around on a 4-track," Cobain explained, "and I wrote that song in about thirty seconds. And I sat down for like half-an-hour and wrote the lyrics and then we recorded it." "Pennyroyal Tea" was first performed live on April 17, 1991 at the OK Hotel in Seattle, Washington, the show at which Nirvana also debuted their breakthrough single, "Smells Like Teen Spirit". Footage of both songs from this performance was released on the DVD of the Nirvana rarities box set, With the Lights Out, in November 2004. Two unfinished takes of the song, both lacking vocals, were recorded by Jack Endino on October 26, 1992, at Word of Mouth in Seattle, Washington. In Utero The final studio version of "Pennyroyal Tea" was recorded by Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota, in February, 1993, and officially released on In Utero in September 1993. The song was first attempted on February 14, with the first take being an instrumental." In a 2013 interview for the audio series Spotify Landmark, Albini revealed that "Pennyroyal Tea" and the album's eventual first single, "Heart-Shaped Box", were the only two songs recorded during the sessions that required "more than a couple of takes", saying that both were "recorded several times in several aerations." Albini also explained that Grohl's bass drum was replaced on "Pennyroyal Tea", as well as "Dumb", with a small one "with a full-front head on it, so that it had a very sort of bouncy, jazzy sound, as opposed to the sort of more percussive, more hard rock sound on the rest