The Smashing Pumpkins – Cherub Rock

Atlanta guitars, then a Super 8 forest

On 21 June 1993, Hut Records, the Virgin label in Britain, put out “Cherub Rock” as a single. It is the first song on Siamese Dream, the Smashing Pumpkins album released on 27 July that year. Billy Corgan wrote it. He wanted it out before “Today,” even though people at the label thought “Today” would be the easier first single. He got his way. The 7-inch, limited to 5,000 copies, carried “Purr Snickety” on the other side. The CD and 12-inch added “Pissant” and a short pairing of “French Movie Theme” with “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

The album was made with producer Butch Vig at Triclops Sound Studios in Atlanta, after the band left Chicago to finish the record. Corgan sang, played the guitars, and played the bass that is on the tape. D’arcy Wretzky is credited with bass, and James Iha with rhythm guitar. Jimmy Chamberlin plays the drums. The opening drum figure is taken from “By-Tor and the Snow Dog,” a 1975 Rush track. The guitar shape at the start is one the Pumpkins had already used on “Drown.” Corgan later said they had taken that shape from Jimi Hendrix, and that Hendrix had probably taken it from Wes Montgomery. He recorded the guitar lines more than once so they pile up behind the vocal. The words are aimed at the indie scene he thought had already decided the band was not really part of it.

In Britain the single reached No. 31 and spent two weeks on the chart. In the United States it reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Alternative Airplay chart and No. 23 on Mainstream Rock. It was nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. On 30 October 1993 the band played it on Saturday Night Live. None of that made it a bigger hit than “Today.” It did make it the track that introduces the album.