Nirvana - "Smells Like Teen Spirit"

I've owned the 45 for 16 years, and never played it until tonight...

It's DGC DGCS7-19050, with a printed time of 4:30, a designation of "(Edit)", and an actual running time of 5:01 - it's really the album version, running at the same speed as the Nevermind CD. Surprise, surprise!

There is, in fact, an edit out there on a CD single (can't remember if it was promo or commercial available). While I got rid of the CD single years ago, the edit appears on Top Hits USA RH10 with the designation of "Edit", and kinda crummy sound.

Here are instructions for creating the edit that's found on Top Hits USA RH10 (I doubt that they did any in-house edits themselves), using the timing from the full Nevermind CD:

Keep the first 24 beats of the song, from 0:00.0-0:13.2.
Edit on a downbeat.
Remove the 16 beats from 0:13.2-0:21.3.
Keep the 313 beats from 0:21.3-3:01.5.
Edit on a snare hit.
Remove the 32 beats from 3:01.5-3:17.7.
Keep 3:17.7-5:01.3 (end).

Your mixdown will have edits at 0:13.2 and 2:53.4, with a total run time of 4:37.0.

I've had the 45 for years as well but have never actually played it, either....    

I also have the cassette single (DGCCS-19050), which I bought new when this song was on the charts. Like the 45, it has a face time of 4:30, and states "(Edit)". I don't have any efficient way of getting an exact to-the-second timing on a cassette, but I timed it out at approximately 5:00, so it seems to be the full-length album version as well.

Perhaps the edit was slated to be on the commercial single at one point, and this was changed too late to fix the single label graphics (or it's just that no one was paying attention)? Since virtually all radio stations would have been using promo CD singles by this point, there was no real reason to lie about the time on the 45 and cassette single, to make it seem like the song was shorter than it really was.

Edited by MCT1

The music video uses the edited version, which is odd considering most bands
would go for the full length version.