Nirvana
Pennyroyal Tea
Geffen NIRPRO CD, released 1994 (UK)
Geffen GED 21907 CD, released 1994 (Germany)
Geffen B0020225-21 7", released 2014 (U.S.)
Geffen 0602537750368 7", released 2014 (Europe)
Well, this one is a hell of a story. CDs were produced in the UK and Germany, but were recalled and mostly destroyed after Kurt Cobain's death (likely due to the fact that one of the b-sides was "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die"...that would be poor form, even for the music industry. That instantly made these CDs some of the more sought-after collectibles. The CDs contained the "Scott Litt Mix" of Pennyroyal Tea, which, as you might have guessed, was different from the version that was on In Utero (though it did end up on the 2013 deluxe editions). The German one is super scarce and expensive, but the UK one is ten times as scarce and five times as epensive. The German ones were counterfeited, but the fakes are easily recognizable. The matrix code on the real ones is SONOPRESS I-2211/GED21907 A 2. Some of these CDs started surfacing in South Korea around 2000. The story there is that a couple hundred were imported there, and they were not recalled the way they were elsewhere. Sounds a little shady to me, but these do seem to be legit. There was also a bootleg 7" made. There was no legitimate 7" until 2014.
The UK one is much more scarce because there were misprints on the CD with the publishers' names ("The End of Music" was written as "The End Of The Music" and "EMI Virgin Music Inc" was printed as "EMI Virgin Music Ltd"). The word is these were sent back to the plant, but never re-pressed due to Cobain's death. These are obnoxiously rare and ungodly expensive.
In 2014, for the 20th anniversary, I guess, a legitimate 7" was released for Record Store Day. Versions were released in the U.S. and Europe. The only differences between the two were the catalogue numbers on the sleeves - the labels are matrix codes on the two records were the same. There were reportedly 6,000 copies made (this figure is likely the worldwide total). Neither is very difficult to find, but the U.S. one seems to be slightly more scarce and a few dollars more expensive.
| Version | Value ($) | Scarcity | Price Trending |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geffen NIRPRO CD (UK) | 900-1,200 | 10 | Volatile |
| Geffen GED 21907 CD (Germany) | 300-400 | 6 | Volatile |
| Geffen B0020225-21 7" Black (U.S.) | 15-20 | 2 | Stable |
| Geffen 0602537750368 7" Black (Europe) | 10-15 | 1 | Stable |
 UK CD |
 Germany CD |
 7" |
| Credits | Discogs: CD images |
|---|
This page was last updated on May 8, 2020.
