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Nirvana's "MTV Unplugged" Surprising Fact
Did you know? 'Where did you sleep last night?' is a 19th century folk song. This wasn't the only cover in Nirvana's famous "MTV Unplugged" performance. In fact, the band chose to perform multiple covers over their greatest hits.
One of the heart wrenching moments of Nirvana's famous MTV unplugged performance was the rendition of "Where did you sleep last night". Kurt shouting out in a raspy voice 'My girl, my girl, don't lie to me, tell me where did you sleep last night?' was engraved deep into our collective memory. It all became even more chilling upon Kurt Cobain's untimely death not long after. We wondered about this song and were surprised to learn about its origins.
The song has multiple names : "In the Pines", "Where did you sleep last night?", "My girl" and "Black girl". Its origins are from a couple of 19th century American folk songs: "In the Pines" and "The longest train". The song is probably even older than the 19th century but that's when the first documentation of it was found. As you would expect for such an old song, there are multiple versions and recordings of this song.
With the help of Google and our TikTok followers, we found some original and impressive versions:
The different versions by Leadbelly (who had a dramatic personal history)
This version by "The four pennies" has a completely different sound to it, coloring it with the colors of British pop.
The 1960's come alive in this version by the Grateful Dead
Another Bluegrass version, this time by Doc Watson
And closing our list is Delaney Davidson
There are so many covers for this song - which one did you prefer?
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