All Apologies (unplugged) - US - promo CD

[Mike M]

Track listing:

1. All Apologies (MTV Unplugged)
2. All Apologies (LP Version)*



Phonographic Copyright (p) – Geffen Records, Inc.
Manufactured By – Uni Distribution Corp.
Distributed By – Uni Distribution Corp.
Pressed By – Specialty Records Corporation

Credits

Remixed by Scott Litt
*Recorded by Steve Albini
*Additional mixing by Scott Litt
*From the DGC album IN UTERO.
Available on LP, Cassette and Compact Disc (DGC/DGCC/DGCD-24607).
Promotional Copy. Not For Sale.
DGC, manufactured and distributed in the United States by Uni Distribution Corp.
℗1994 Geffen Records, Inc. ℗1994, 1993 Geffen Records, Inc. Made in U.S.A.
All Rights Reserved. Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws.
Produced by special arrangement with Sub Pop Records.
Barcode and Other Identifiers

Matrix / Runout: S 38 PRO CD 4618-2 SRC##01 M1S1

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So my reason for posting is that I have a question for all you know it all's of the Nirvana discography:

When exactly was this released ? I know it was in 1994 but when in 1994 ? First of all this includes both the Unplugged and In Utero versions of All Apologies, but the Unplugged version is the first track. Further to this although the unplugged version is the first track on the CD there is absolutely no mention of the MTV Unplugged in New York album. Yes, it says in brackets in the track listing "(MTV Unplugged)" but there is no mention of the actual Unplugged in New York album itself. Yet there is a mention for the second track as being "*From the DGC album In Utero". Also, by contrast the US unplugged promo single for About a Girl does actually say "from the forthcoming album MTV Unplugged in New York" confirming that the About a Girl promo came out before the album. And the US unplugged promo for The Man Who Sold The World also says from the MTV Unplugged in New York album, showing that it came out after the album. So bearing in mind that the unplugged version of All Apologies was being aired as a single music video as early as 1993 (being found on the list of Top 100 music videos that year, although very low down), is it possible that this promo CD was released in very early 1994, more off the back of the In Utero album/unplugged performance, rather than as a promo CD for the unplugged album ? If anyone has a date for release of this promo then please let me know.

Thanks,

[andypandy]

I'd say the obvious, simple answer to your question is "yes, clearly this was released some time before the About A Girl promo, but exactly how much is hard to say".

From the catalog numbers it seems that the All Apologies promo was the earliest of the promos you mentioned*.
*This does not always have to be true. Catalog numbers can be assigned far in advance, and discs with higher numbers can be released before lower numbers. However, in the case of these PRO-CD discs, I think they are assigned fairly "on the fly" so we can use them like this with a high certainty.

All Apologies PRO-CD 4618
About a Girl PRO-CD 4688
The Man.. PRO-CD-4707

According to the text on About a Girl, that promo was distributed before the release of Unplugged as you say, so All Apologies must have been even further in advance.

Adding some more to the list, In Utero promos:
HSB PRO-CD 4545 (the single was released in August 1993)
All Ap. (Utero) PRO-CD 4581 (the single was released in December 1993)

There's a sizeable gap in the numbers between the In Utero promo and the "double-promo", 4618-4581=37.
This is similar to the gap between the two In Utero promos, 4581-4545=36. Over four months, that's 9 numbers each month on average. You can then imagine that maybe there are four months between the In Utero All Ap and the double All Ap promos, too, putting it around March 1994. This is obviously very speculative. There's also the fact that these singles were not released in the USA, I'm applying rest-of-world release dates to American promo CDs.

The About A Girl single was released end of October 1994 (though still not officially released in the USA). Difference in numbers is 4688-4618=70. 70/9=7,8 months. Counting backwards, this also puts it around March.

Very speculative to quantify like this, from the catalog numbers, but I think it's not too far off.
Either way, it came out "some time" before the About a Girl promo, which is still the simple and 100% certain answer.

[Mike M]

Thanks for such a detailed reply Andy. That's really interesting about the catalogue numbers, and I suspect you are probably right about it being released in March 1994. Don't mean to go all pop tarty, but if this promo was, as you say, released in March 1994, could it have contributed to the All Apologies peak chart position of number 45 on the Hot 100 Airplay chart (now called the Radio songs chart) which peaked on the date of April 2, 1994 ?

[andypandy]

Who knows, could be. That's good timing, isn't it?

[Mike M]

(04-22-2016, 10:57 AM)andypandy Wrote: Who knows, could be. That's good timing, isn't it?

Yes very good timing Andy, well done. I have just checked the book Nirvana: The Chosen Rejects which has an extensive discography and which was written by the radio DJ Kurt St. Thomas, who happens to have been the first DJ to play the Nevermind album on the radio and who you would have thought would know about this sort of thing. However, the book gives the year of 1993 for this promo which can't be right because the copyright markings show that it was in 1994. Then again, the same book erroneously states that the Aneurysm promo from the Wishkah album came out in 1994 and that the Pennyroyal Tea CD single was a very rare Australian CD single. LOL.