Ongoing History Daily: Some strange Nirvana trivia

When Nirvana released their Nevermind album on September 24, 1991, expectations were low. If the record sold 150,000 copies, then it would be considered a success. But then it took off in about a month, selling 300,000 copies a week. And then a strange thing happened. Throughout December 1991, the album bounced around in the Top 10. But in the week after Christmas, things exploded with US sales of 373,520 copies. Why? Because so many kids returned whatever CDs their parents had bought them for Christmas, exchanging them for copies of Nevermind. By January, it had pushed Michael Jackson’s Bad album out of the number one spot. Nevermind may have been the first and only album in history to reach number one on the album charts as the result of exchanges.

© 2025 Corus Radio, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.