Throwback to when Kurt Cobain revealed who his favorite and least favorite Beatles were: “Paul McCartney embarrasses me”

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, who died 31 years ago this month, described The Beatles as “the biggest influence I’ve ever had”. However, the grunge icon appears not to have been impressed by every member of the Fab Four.

“I hate Paul McCartney”

“John Lennon was definitely my favorite Beatle, hands down,” Cobain told Rolling Stone in January 1994, three months before his death by suicide. “I don’t know who wrote what parts of what Beatles songs, but Paul McCartney embarrasses me. Lennon was obviously disturbed [laughs]. So I could relate to that.”

Five years earlier, Cobain had also spoken of his aversion to McCartney, along with two other major musicians to emerge in the mid-20th century, in an interview with The Daily: “I like The Beatles, but I hate Paul McCartney. I like Led Zeppelin, but I hate Robert Plant. I like The Who, but I hate Roger Daltrey.”

How did The Beatles influence Cobain?

“I listened to The Beatles since I was five years old up until I was in 4th Grade - the same three records over and over every night,” Cobain revealed in a 1989 interview with Radio Onde Furlane. “I sang the songs and I wanted to see The Beatles. It was about 1973 when I heard on the radio that they’d broken up for three years. I was totally devastated!”

Despite Cobain’s apparent dislike of McCartney, Louder Sound’s Paul Brannigan notes that the only known recordings of the American performing Beatles tracks involve songs written by McCartney: 1968’s “Hey Jude”, sung by Cobain when he was a child, and a later cover of 1964’s “And I Love Her”.

Brannigan adds that an evident musical relationship can be heard between “And I Love Her” and the Nirvana track ”About a Girl", from the Aberdeen, Washington band’s 1989 debut album Bleach.

Beatles influence leads to “innovative sonic experience”

Writing in Far Out magazine, the journalist Kelly Scanlon says The Beatles’ influence on Cobain’s Nirvana songs brought about a potent blend between the tenderness of the British group’s melodies and the forceful energy of the grunge genre.

“Cobain crafted Nirvana’s unique sound by fusing his interest in the Fab Four with the heavier elements of punk and metal, focusing on both the power of simple melodies and more profound, more thought-provoking musical arrangements,” Scanlon explains.

“As a result, he perfected the balance between tender rock ballads and faster, energetic grunge sounds, coming up with an innovative sonic experience that would live on years after he passed away.”

Formed in 1987, Nirvana followed up Bleach with 1991’s Nevermind and 1993’s In Utero - both albums that went to No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart.

The group’s best-known track, the Nevermind lead single “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, reached No. 6 in the Billboard Hot 100 and at the time of writing had amassed nearly 2.4 billion listens on the music streaming service Spotify.

Cobain died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on April 8, 1994, at the age of 27. He was survived by his wife, the musician and actor Courtney Love, and the couple’s daughter Frances Bean, who was born in August 1992.

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