Song of the Day 3/12: Sturgill Simpson, “In Bloom”

I guess it’s my week for country-adjacent covers of rock songs. Sturgill Simpson turns Nirvana’s tuneful grunge-pop nugget into a power ballad that builds to a horn-embellished climax worth of Vegas-era Elvis. He included it on his acclaimed 2016 album “A Sailor’s Guide to Earth” because, he told Spin, “For me, that song has always summed up what it means to be a teenager, and I think it tells a young boy that he can be sensitive and compassionate — he doesn’t have to be tough or cold to be a man. So I wanted to make a very beautiful and pure homage to Kurt.”

“In Bloom” was the fourth so-called single from “Nevermind” — can you believe that album was released 30 years ago? — reaching No. 5 on the Rock chart despite never being released as an actual single. It was instead released as a video after the band first recorded most of “Nevermind,” material that was scrapped when Kurt Cobain and Krist Novolesic fired drummer Chad Channing, who appears in the video.

The songs were re-recorded with new drummer Dave Grohl, who’s more technically proficient but mostly follows Channing’s original part. The main difference a year made was the amount of money the record company was willing to spend on videos.