"Heart-Shaped Box" is a song by the American grunge band Nirvana, written by Kurt Cobain. It was the first single from their 1993 album In Utero. The song reached #1 on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks, staying there for three weeks and was a Top 5 hit in the UK."Heart-Shaped Box" was written by Kurt Cobain sometime in late 1992 or early 1993. Cobain claimed the song was inspired by documentaries about kids with cancer. Cobain forgot about the song for a while, but began working on it again when he and his wife Courtney Love moved to an apartment in Hollywood Hills. According to Courtney Love, the song was written in a closet in the couple's bedroom. "We had this huge closet," she explained in a 1994 Rolling Stone interview, "and I heard him working on 'Heart-Shaped Box.' He wrote the song in five minutes." Love also revealed that she asked Cobain for the song's guitar riff, and that he slammed the door in her face. "He was trying to be so sneaky," said Love. "I could hear that one from downstairs."Nirvana had difficulty completing the song. Cobain attempted to have the rest of the band complete the song during jam sessions. He said, "During those practices, I was trying to wait for Krist and Dave to come up with something but it just turned into noise all the time." One day Cobain made one last attempt at completing the song. Cobain was able to come up with a vocal melody and the band finally finished writing the song. Cobain said that when they completed 'Heart-Shaped Box,' "We finally realized that it was a good song.""Heart-Shaped Box" was first performed live on January 16, 1993, in S
ão Paulo, Brazil. The first studio version was recorded by Craig Montgomery in January 1993 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This embryonic version appears on the band's 2004 box set, With the Lights Out, and on their 2005 compilation album, Sliver: The Best of the Box. It features unfinished lyrics, as
well as a longer chorus and an extended, more caustic guitar solo.The In Utero version was recorded in February 1993 by Steve Albini in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. It was remixed, along with "All Apologies" and later "Pennyroyal Tea," by Scott Litt prior to the album's release, which led to accusations
of selling out from many of the band's detractors. Cobain was unapologetic about the band's decision, and maintained that the vocals and bass were not prominent enough in the original mixes. Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic was also unhappy with the original mix of "Heart-Shaped Box." In a 1993 Chic
ago Sun-Times interview, he said the original effect used on the song's guitar solo sounded "like a fucking abortion hitting the floor." When the song was remixed by Scott Litt, Cobain took the opportunity to add acoustic guitar and backing harmonies.The "Heart-Shaped Box" music video was directed b
y Dutch photographer and video director Anton Corbijn. It includes a number of striking images, including a skeletal old man in a Santa hat hanging from a crow-ridden cross, a young girl in a Ku Klux Klan costume reaching for fetuses in a tree, and even a large woman dressed to resemble the anatomic
al model of the cover of In Utero, complete with angel wings. It also includes shots of the band performing in a field of poppies, hinting at the field of sleep-inducing poppies from the The Wizard of Oz, and of Cobain singing into the camera in a fake-starlit room as Novoselic and drummer Dave Groh
l sit behind him. A less-common version of the video was made with alternate footage during the final verse (very likely a director's cut), including more shots of the young girl and the large woman, and scenes of Cobain lying on his back in the poppy field, with smoke rising from his mouth. This vi
deo can be seen on the DVD The Work of Director Anton Corbijn.After the video's release, Nirvana was sued by Kevin Kerslake, who had directed the videos for "Come As You Are," "Lithium," "In Bloom" and "Sliver," and who claimed that the band had stolen his early ideas for the clip in the final produ
ct. Kerslake dropped the case following Cobain's death in April 1994. The video won two posthumous MTV Video Music Awards in 1994: for best alternative video, and for best art direction. The awards were accepted by Cobain's former bandmates Novoselic, Grohl, and Pat Smear.In the BBC documentary "The
Last 48 hours Of Kurt Cobain", former Nirvana producer Jack Endino said the video for "Heart-Shaped Box" was "scary" for those who knew Kurt, after his death.

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