Heart-Shaped Box

"Heart-Shaped Box"
UK picture sleeve
Single by Nirvana
from the album In Utero
B-side	"Marigold" "Milk It" "Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip"
Released	August 30, 1993 (1993-08-30)
Recorded	February 1993
Studio	Pachyderm, Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Genre	Grunge[1]
Length	4:39
Label	DGC
Songwriter(s)	Kurt Cobain
Producer(s)	Steve Albini
Nirvana singles chronology
"Puss / Oh, the Guilt" (1993) "Heart-Shaped Box" (1993) "All Apologies" / "Rape Me" (1993)
In Utero track listing
12 tracks "Serve the Servants" "Scentless Apprentice" "Heart-Shaped Box" "Rape Me" "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" "Dumb" "Very Ape" "Milk It" "Pennyroyal Tea" "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" "tourette's" "All Apologies"
Music videos
"Heart-Shaped Box" on YouTube "Heart-Shaped Box" (Director's Cut) on YouTube

"Heart-Shaped Box" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by vocalist and guitarist Kurt Cobain. It appears as the third track on the band's third and final studio album, In Utero, released by DGC Records in September 1993. It was one of two songs on In Utero remixed by Scott Litt prior to the album's release, due to the band's dissatisfaction with the original mixing by producer Steve Albini. The Litt remix also featured additional vocal harmonies and guitar by Cobain, which were the only elements on the album's 12 main tracks not recorded during the original sessions with Albini in February 1993.

In Michael Azerrad's 1993 Nirvana biography, Cobain explained that "Heart-Shaped Box" was written about children with terminal cancer.^[2] However, the song is generally also believed to be about his relationship with his wife, Courtney Love, of the American rock band, Hole.

"Heart-Shaped Box" was released as In Utero's first single on August 30, 1993. Although the single was not released in the United States, to avoid competing with album sales, the song generated considerable American radio airplay, reaching number one on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart. The physical single reached the top 10 in several countries, including Portugal, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Finland, and New Zealand. It also reached to Top 40 in numerous other countries.

"Heart-Shaped Box" was the final song performed at Nirvana's last concert, on March 1, 1994, in Munich, Germany. It was also the final Nirvana song to receive a music video before the suicide of Cobain in April 1994. The video, directed by Anton Corbijn, won two awards, including Best Alternative Video, at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards.