The catalog of grunge legends Nirvana recently got a long overdue look from the RIAA, resulting in the celebrated band scoring a wave of new diamond, platinum and gold certifications. First up, the defunct band’s 1991 sophomore album “Nevermind” has newly been certified 13x multi-platinum, having last gone diamond (10x multi-platinum) in March of 1999.
That landmark album’s breakout first single “Smells Like Teen Spirit” has also newly gone diamond on its own, last having been certified platinum in April of 1992. Other newly awarded certifications for material found on “Nevermind” run as follows.
Multi-platinum:
“In Bloom” (2x multi-platinum)
“Come As You Are” (5x multi-platinum)
“Lithium” (3x multi-platinum)
Platinum:
“Something In The Way”
Gold:
“Breed”
“Polly”
“Drain You”
Delving further into the band’s catalog, their final studio album, 1993’s “In Utero“, has just notched up a 6x multi-platinum certification, having previously been certified 5x multi-platinum in October of 1996. Various tracks from that record also landed some new hardware as well, here’s the breakdown.
Multi-platinum:
“Heart-Shaped Box” (3x multi-platinum)
Platinum:
“All Apologies”
“Rape Me”
Gold:
“Dumb”
The band’s final recording with their late vocalist/guitarist Kurt Cobain, “You Know You’re Right“, has also newly gone gold. That track was posthumously released in 2002. All of the above certifications were handed down by the RIAA on December 06th and reflect sales and streaming performance in the United States.
A platinum album/single in the United States represents 1,000,000 units, while gold signifies 500,000 units. Outside of traditional physical/digital sales, the certifications factor in digital streams/downloads with 10 permanent track downloads counting as 1 unit and 1500 on-demand audio/video streams from a particular album also counting as as a unit.
