Bad Copy

Hello there kids. Time for story time with… oh wait, no that’s not right. This isn’t that. No, this is another issue of Radio Unfriendly’s Cover to Cover. It is here that I talk about a song that has been covered, hence the title. This time around, I’ll be talking about the song “About a Girl.”

The Original:

The original version of “About A Girl” was written and recorded by Nirvana. If you don’t know who Nirvana is… first of all, I’m concerned. But seriously…

Nirvana is a grunge/alternative rock band that formed in 1987 in Aberdeen, WA, a city about two hours south of Seattle. The band released their first album, Bleach, through independent record label Sub Pop Records in 1989. In 1991, they signed a major label deal with DGC and released their debut with the label that same year. That album, of course, was Nevermind. An album that turned the music industry upside down and changed the course of music history forever. The band only released three studio albums, the third being 1993’s In Utero. However, they also released five live albums, four compilation albums, two EPs, and three box sets. The band ended with the unfortunate suicide of singer/guitarist Kurt Cobain.

The song “About A Girl” was released on their debut album Bleach. It was written by Cobain about his girlfriend at the time. According to articles, he wrote the song after spending an afternoon listening to the album Meet the Beatles. When the song was brought into the studio, he did not have a name for it and when the drummer (at the time it was Chad Channing) asked what it was called, Cobain just said “It’s about a girl” and the name stuck.

The Cover:

The song was covered by Nashville, Tennessee based indie rock band Bully. While in name it is a band, Bully is actually the name of a solo project formed in 2013 by singer/songwriter Alicia Bognanno. Alicia got a degree in audio recording from Middle Tennessee State and wound up being an intern at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio in Chicago. She moved back to Tennessee and got a job as an engineer at Battle Tapes Recording in Nashville. She formed Bully as a trio with her then-boyfriend and a bass player. The band released their first self-titled EP in 2013, after which they signed a record deal with Columbia Records. The first album released with Columbia in June 2015, titled Feels Like. As of this writing, Bully has released four studio albums, the most recent of which was 2023s Lucky For You.

Their version of Nirvana’s “About A Girl” was released as a single in May 2020. It was not released on any of their albums.

The Verdict:

First a little history. Bleach is the first album I heard from Nirvana. I found a cassette of it somewhere (I can’t remember where) and I liked it. I also remember that when Nevermind came out, I was slightly disappointed when I found out that it was the same band. The album, quite honestly, felt a little watered down to me. It’s a good album and I don’t feel as negative toward it as I did then but Bleach is still my favorite Nirvana album. Their version is a good song and one of my favorites from the album. I could probably even say that it is one of my favorite songs from the band.

The Bully version sounds, strangely, crunchier and dare I say, grungier, than the original. I get the idea that this is what Alicia was going for.

You might find this hard to believe, even I do, but I actually prefer the cover version over the original. I’m not sure how hot a take that is but I just do. First of all, I like the crunchiness of it. I love the guitar tone. I love the guitar solo or break toward the end of the song. Also, Alicia’s voice is absolutely beautiful and she takes this song to another place. No disrespect to the original or the memory of Kurt but the Bully version, at least to me, just kicks harder.

But what do you think?

So there’s another edition of cover to cover. Hope you are enjoying these as much as I am writing them. See you again soon!