Nevermind and Blood Sugar Sex Magik turn 35, released the same day in 1991
Nirvana's Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik both came out on September 24, 1991, alongside A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory and the US release of Pixies' Trompe le Monde. Nevermind debuted at #144 on the Billboard 200 and did not reach #1 until January 11, 1992.
By Riffiter
Thirty-five years ago, on September 24, 1991, Nirvana put out Nevermind and Red Hot Chili Peppers put out Blood Sugar Sex Magik. A Tribe Called Quest's The Low End Theory came out that day too, and so did the American edition of Pixies' Trompe le Monde. Nevermind is the one everybody remembers, and it barely made a sound that week.
A slow start
DGC shipped 46,251 copies of Nevermind in the US at launch. The album entered the Billboard 200 at #144. Rolling Stone's review, by Ira Robbins, gave it three stars out of five, and the magazine now lists it among the classic albums it originally panned. The British weeklies heard it sooner. Steve Lamacq gave it 9/10 in NME, and Everett True wrote in Melody Maker: "There will not be a better straight-ahead rock album than Nevermind released all year."
Eight days before release, Nirvana played a free in-store at Beehive Records in Seattle, with no stage and no security. The crowd was nearly four times what the label had planned for. Cobain later said it was one of the first times he understood he was already famous.
It took sixteen weeks for that to show up on the chart. On the Billboard chart dated January 11, 1992, Nevermind replaced Michael Jackson's Dangerous at #1. The label's president, Ed Rosenblatt, later said: "We didn't do anything. It was just one of those 'Get out of the way and duck' records." Butch Vig produced it, at Sound City in Van Nuys and Smart Studios in Madison, in May and June of 1991.
The Mansion
Blood Sugar Sex Magik was Red Hot Chili Peppers' fifth album and their first with Rick Rubin. It was tracked between April and June 1991 at Rubin's house in Laurel Canyon, known as the Mansion. Anthony Kiedis, Flea and John Frusciante lived there for the two months of basic tracking. Chad Smith refused. The house was said to be haunted by a woman murdered there in the 1930s, and he rode his motorcycle home every night instead. The record peaked at #3 in the US and is now seven times platinum there.
Same day, or same week
The "greatest release day" story usually has four rock records in it, and only two of them fit the date exactly.
| Record | Released | Label |
|---|---|---|
| Nevermind | September 24, 1991 | DGC |
| Blood Sugar Sex Magik | September 24, 1991 | Warner Bros. |
| The Low End Theory | September 24, 1991 | Jive |
| Trompe le Monde | September 23 (UK), September 24 (US) | 4AD / Elektra |
| Screamadelica | September 23 (UK), October 8 (US) | Creation / Sire |
| Badmotorfinger | October 8, 1991 | A&M |
Trompe le Monde was out a day earlier in Britain on 4AD. It was the last Pixies album until the 2004 reunion, and it went to #7 in the UK and #92 in the US. Primal Scream's Screamadelica is often put on September 24, but it came out in the UK on the 23rd and in North America two weeks later. The next year it won the first Mercury Music Prize, over Achtung Baby. Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger was originally scheduled for September 24 and still gets listed under that date. Production problems pushed it to October 8.
The date itself holds two of the four, plus Pixies in America and a rap record with a better claim to the list than Screamadelica has.