| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
| Pennyroyal Tea GED 21907 | |||||||
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Welcome to a document trying to be the most complete on this subject, the Pennyroyal Tea single. This single is one of the most sought after and mysterious items in Nirvana's catalog. They were recalled and taken of the market shortly after Kurt Cobain's death. What happened to the recalled discs, and how many are out among collectors today are uncertain. Rumored promos and test pressings also add confusion. This document seeks to uncover as much as possible about the German Pennyroyal Tea CD single, the UK CD promo, and other planned releases which there has been found evidence of. The songs The title track is a remix by Scott Litt. This version has higher bass and higher backing-vocals, of what I can notice. The coughing in the beginning is omitted. This remix of Pennyroyal Tea is also available on the "clean" American In Utero CD (DGCD-24705) and cassette (DGCC-24705), which also lists "Rape Me" as "Waif Me", and was sold at Wal-Mart and K-mart. In 2002 it was also released on the "Nirvana" best of compilation. I Hate Myself And Want To Die originally appeared on the Geffen/DGC compilation "The Beavis And Butt-Head Experience", but a few minutes of Beavis & Butt-Head dialogue was added to the beginning of the track. Where Did You Sleep Last Night (In The Pines) was later released on the album "MTV Unplugged In New York", and finally on the "Nirvana" best of compilation. The track-times listed on the CD, 3:36, 2:51, and 4:37 respectively, are actually wrong. See under tracklist below to see actual times I found on my stereo. Description The German CD single is the only officially released version which was made, or escaped total destruction. The discs were pressed by Sonopress, identified by the matrix code SONOPRESS I-2211/GED21907 A 2, and the IFPI 07 repertoire (more about IFPI codes below). There is an "extra ring" around the spindle hole on one IFPI variation, and "melted edges" on the no-IFPI variation. The discs also have the metallic reflective layer extending almost to the spindle hole, which it is actually not perfectly centered around. A standard Sonopress feature, present on all discs except some earlier pressings, for example some early Smells Like Teen Spirit (GED 21673) singles. The text on the disc is dark purple, and not black. The original artwork was initially designed in USA, and sent to Europe and probably Australia, as proved by the chromalins which have been found for the planned 7" and CS singles. The German single has been counterfeited, referred to as the "+ counterfeit". Recalled and destroyed The singles were sent out for distribution by late March or early April, and were probably released just a few days before Kurt Cobain comitted suicide, if they were properly released at all. The discs were recalled shortly after he was found. There are two possible reasons to why the German CD was recalled, and production was cancelled in UK. First, the label wanted to avoid bad publicity, not least because of the inapproriate title "I Hate Myself And Want To Die". According to a Geffen UK employee, the title was the definite reason. UK stores actually requested Nirvana material, but the record company refused in respect to Kurt. Another reason is that there was no tour to support. Recalled discs were most likely destroyed. In that case, the discs were sent back to the record label, which destroyed them, or they were destroyed on site by the retail outlets on order from the record label. Destroying recalled releases is and was common. It does not make sense to store them away, because that would take too much room, and the record label would never sell the singles. A record store owner in Stockholm had some genuine Pennyroyal Tea singles in 1997. He claimed that the singles were destroyed in Kista, outside Stockholm, but an employee of whoever was to destroy them stole a bunch of singles, possibly 10-20, from the truck when they parked to unload them. Around the same time a person working at a Dutch distribution centre somehow came over a few singles, but Geffen found out about it. The discs were destroyed, in presence of people from the record company. He managed to save nine copies. It seems that "claiming some samples" is one of the main reasons why any singles got out at all. Before returning a box of singles, a few are removed. (Just as with the UK promo CD. Before the promo discs were sent back to the pressing plant for destruction, several Geffen office employees picked up a few copies.) I'm not sure if discs were sold over the counter before they were recalled. If so, it couldn't have been for many days. There are not that many copies around in collectors' hands. Maybe major chains waited for an official release date, and smaller stores didn't. One thing is almost certain, the discs were sent out to stores, if not there would be far less copies around. But they may have been recalled before the official release date. The UK singles were not released by the time Cobain was found. That does not need to mean the German CD singles weren't, but it could suggest so. It's hard to say anything about how many are out there today. Before the Internet, they seemed very rare. As of September 26 2006, about 80 copies have appeared on eBay. Although it's cheaper than the Love Buzz single, there does not appear to be more Pennyroyal Tea singles than Love Buzz singles. I estimate that there are 500 or more out there. 100 to 200 would mean that a very large part of them, about half to a fourth, are accounted for, which seems unreasonable. A fifth of the Love Buzz 7" singles and promos have been found. Had there been as many as 1000 Pennyroyal Tea CDs, it would probably appear more often. A Pennyroyal Tea owners' list could be helpful, but Pennyroyal Tea singles are hard to track, because they are not numbered like Love Buzz. Either way, 80 times 5 would be 400, assuming all auctions were different singles and the same percentage has been found as for Love Buzz. IFPI codes An important feature is the IFPI code stamped in the inner ring, or the lack of one. An IFPI code is a way the distributors, record companies, and pressing plants protect it from being copied. It does not prevent anything from being counterfeited, but it should make it easier to identify a counterfeit. However, IFPI codes can also be faked. There are two types of IFPI codes. IFPI codes are also called Source Identification (SID), but I mostly stick with IFPI. The code in the matrix code itself is added by the Laser Beam Recorder (LBR) as the rest of the matrix code, and identifies the plant which manufactured the master. This is referred to as the master IFPI, or SID (master). This always starts with an "L". No variation of the Pennyroyal Tea single has a master IFPI. The second is forced by the mould, and is referred to as the mould IFPI, or SID (mould). They identify the pressing plant which manufactured the disc, and also the specific mould. The first two digits or letters (sometimes three) determine the repertoire of the pressing plant. Sonopress mould IFPI codes always start with 07. The last two digits or letters identify the specific mould. Three variations of mould IFPI have been found on Pennyroyal Tea singles, no IFPI, IFPI 0738, and IFPI 0793. There are tiny differences between the three variations. The no-IFPI and IFPI 0738 versions look exactly the same, except the metallic reflective layer goes a tiny bit further out to the rim on one of them (I don't remember which one). You won't see it unless you have both copies in hand. The 0793 variation has an extra ring around the spindle hole (image 6). The no-IFPI variation has "melted edges" (image 8). The IFPI 0793 variation does not have melted edges, and I think I remember that neither does the IFPI 0738 variation. It is quite reasonable that small differences like this occur, as they are pressed by different moulds. All three variations have the standard Sonopress feature where the metallic reflective layer is not perfectly centered around the spindle hole. Discs compared side to side, the printing quality is the same. The extra ring has been observed on other Sonopress discs with different IFPI codes, discs which are pointless to counterfeit. The melted edges appear on discs pressed by different moulds, too, such as 0704, 0719, 0726, 0728, 0762, and the no-IFPI moulds. As no-IFPI variations of other releases have been found both with and without the melted edges, I assume there are several moulds which does not have an IFPI code, at least there were back in 1994. One possible explanation as to why they did not have IFPI codes on all their moulds back then is that they had not yet applied it to all their moulds. The IFPI SID codes were first introduced in 1993. This means that all no-IFPI discs were not necessarily manufactured by the same mould. The fact that we have found several IFPI codes indicate that somewhat substantial numbers were pressed. Further, the inserts have been inspected to be identical. For example, the transparent coating applied to give a slight glossy appearance a t the top 5mm is kind of defective. The same defect is on inserts from both the no-IFPI and IFPI 0793 (and IFPI 0738) variations. This would be impossible to reproduce. Even though the singles were pressed on at least three moulds, the order from Geffen was a specific number. The same applied to the printing factory. The slimline cases are also identical, down to the small E.2.8/ E.2.7 code on the plastic on the back top right corner. The most common variation is probably the no-IFPI version, followed by the IFPI 0793 version. The IFPI 0738 version is actually quite rare, I have only seen references to three copies. All originally came from Holland. One was spotted in Amsterdam many years ago, I bought one from a Dutch which I resold, and a third copy appeared in 2006. Original distribution It appears that most singles where distributed to Europe. American and Australian retailers would undoubtly have imported singles from Europe (see "Importers" below), but there was not enough time to do so. Most singles were distributed in Germany, Holland, Finland, Sweden, and maybe UK and France, even though UK planned to eventually release their own version. Most have appeared from either Germany or Holland. Before the ones surfaced in Korea (see below), many copies came from Finland. Two shops in Finland had about 20 copies. They could be found for about $4 in Sweden in 1994, but raised to around $30 throughout 1995. They became harder to find as soon as the + counterfeits started to appear in 1995. The Korean story The market experienced an overflow of Pennyroyal Tea singles in 1999. IFPI 0793 variations started to appear on eBay, all from Korean sellers. One of these sellers stated that one or several Korean import companies imported 200 copies (the number may be a rough estimate). Whether this happened in 1999 or before is unknown, 1999 is when they first appeared on eBay. Obviously these discs didn't resurface through official channels. Import company can mean so much. It could be BMG who didn't know what these were, it could be a smaller independent company, or not a company at all. Essentially what must have happened is that a batch of lost or hidden discs somehow found their way around the globe. All of them were of the IFPI 0793 variation, indicating that they came from the same batch. Before they surfaced on eBay, no discs with an IFPI code were known of. It is possible that it had just gotten unnoticed, but maybe those which surfaced in Korea are the only IFPI 0793 there are. The eBay seller "recomania" is the seller who ended up with the largest quantity of these singles. He said he got them around in various shops, for prices from a few dollars to about $400. It seems that for a limited time, these singles could be found in shops in Korea. Recomania still sells these singles on eBay. Because of this shady story, some people believe that the IFPI 0793 variations are counterfeits. As explained above under IFPI codes, that is impossible. They are as official as the no-IFPI variation. It is the story behind this Korean importing which is shady and incomplete, and not the facts we can tell from the discs. If they were counterfeits, why add the extra ring and IFPI code when you've got a perfect reproduction? The discs were definitely pressed by the Sonopress plant in Gütersloh, Germany, along with the no-IFPI and IFPI 0738 variations.
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 1. Front part of insert (view entire insert, pops up in a new window)  2. Back part of insert (view entire insert, pops up in a new window)  3. Disc  4. Matrix with no IFPI code  5. Matrix with IFPI 0738  6. Matrix with IFPI 0793 and extra ring  7. Sealed single with Korean price sticker  8. "Melted" edge (no IFPI), and "clean" edge (IFPI 0793) Thanks to The Collector's Nirvana Discography, www.nirvanaclub.com, Raymond Kusters, recomania (images 6-7), Enrico Vincenzi (image 8), Stefan Lännbrink, Torsten Roesler, Rob Fellows, and Craig Mills. | |||||||
| Main Pressing plants Pennyroyal Tea Test pressings Collection |
