Black Hole Sun
"
Black Hole Sun" is a
song by 1990's
grunge band
Soundgarden. It originally appeared on their 1994 album
Superunknown and was the second single released from it (the previous one being "
Spoonman"). It would later appear on the band's greatest hits album
A-Sides. It is possibly the band's most popular song, and was the most popular grunge song of 1994. It is considered by some to be the last major hit for grunge in the mainstream. In 1995 the song won the
Grammy Award for Best Hard Rock Performance.
Released as a single in the summer of 1994, the song's success came shortly after the death of the grunge rock icon
Kurt Cobain. With its bleak lyrics (particularly the chorus's "black hole sun/Won't you come/And wash away the rain"), its popularity may have been a result of the sadness that was felt throughout the grunge community at the time. Some of the lyrics may be a reference to Cobain with lines like "hear you scream again" and "noone sings like you anymore".
The
music video that accompanied the song contained scenes that possibly reference the British TV series
Doctor Who. Others assert that some scenes reference the films of
David Lynch. As in the case of its radio airplay, the video was given heavy rotation on
MTV.
After the
September 11, 2001 attacks,
Clear Channel put it on its
list of possibly inappropriate songs.
"Black Hole Sun" has been covered by Judith Owen (mainly in 5/4 time, in a dramatic break with the original),
Paul Anka,
Mimi Goese,
Incubus,
Jandek,
Steve Lawrence and
Eydie Gormé,
Cibo Matto,
jazz pianist Brad Mehldau,
The Moog Cookbook,
Alanis Morissette,
Copeland,
Peter Frampton, Handsome Hank And His Lonesome Boys as well as by former Soundgarden frontman
Chris Cornell on his
Euphoria Morning tour and by Cornell's current band,
Audioslave, on their
Out of Exile tour and
Live 8 performance.It was also featured in a polka medley by
Weird Al Yankovic.
| Year | Single | Chart | Position | | 1995 | Black Hole Sun | Official Irish Singles Chart | No. 7 |
| 1994 | Black Hole Sun | Official UK Singles Chart | No. 12 |
| 1994 | Black Hole Sun | Mainstream Rock Tracks (US) | No. 1 |
| 1994 | Black Hole Sun | Modern Rock Tracks (US) | No. 2 |
| 1994 | Black Hole Sun | Top 40 Mainstream (US) | No. 9 |
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All Music Guide review
