Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun

Times are gone for honest men.

Album: Superunknown (4th album)
Recorded: Seattle, Washington
Genre: Rock, Grunge, Stoner Metal
Album Release: March 8th 1994
Single Release: March 13th 1994 (3rd single)
Length: 5.18
Producer: Soundgarden & Michael Beinhorn
Vocalist: Chris Cornell (age 29)
Label: A&M Records

Music Video


Live in 1995


Acoustic version from 2017

Charts, Streams & Sales

Spotify: Over 600 million
YouTube Music: Over 300 million
Guitar World: 100 Greatest Guitar Solos: #63
Kerrang Greatest Singles of All Time: #49
Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All Time: #368
VH1 Greatest Songs of the 90's: #25

Credits

Details 

• Chris Cornell wrote the lyrics in a stream of consciousness style based on the feeling of the music as well as the songs title. He had heard the phrase 'black hole sun' on the news the day before and became inspired, quickly recording melodies by whistling into a dictaphone before he forgot them. Overall, he wrote 'Black Hole Sun' in 40 minutes and recorded it in 15, completing the entire first draft in less than an hour.
  
  
• 'Black Hole Sun' dialls down the bands heavier elements and is in the vein of a sinister singer songwriter. It's the only song like it on Superunknown, though the group would record similar efforts on later albums. Before recording the vocals, producer Michael Beinhorn instructed Cornell to listen to Frank Sinatra, as he wanted to capture a similar sense of subtle power.
  
  
• The music video shows crazy looking people in suburbia going about their daily activities while the world gets swallowed by a black hole. Meanwhile, the band nonchalantly play in a nearby field. The disaffected, shrugging at the end of the world, generation X vibe was created by happy accident.
  
  Soundgarden were unhappy with their previous videos and told the director, Howard Greenhalgh, that all they really wanted to do was stand about and play their instruments. The disconnect between the band's performance and the cartoonish visuals is what makes the video work.
  

"What's interesting to me is the combination of a black hole and a sun," he said. "A black hole is a billion times larger than a sun, it's a void, a giant circle of nothing, and then you have the sun, the giver of all life. It was this combination of bright and dark, this sense of hope and underlying moodiness."

"I even liked the way the words looked written down. I liken it to Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, where there's a happy veneer over something dark. It's not something I can do on purpose but occasionally it will happen by accident." (Chris Cornell talking to Uncut Magazine)

Artwork