When Soundgarden released their 1994 album Superunknown, its overwhelming success was the result of three months’ worth of grueling recording sessions and being pushed to their creative limits. Producer Michael Beinhorn knew he could draw water from this stone, and while his hands-on approach wasn’t always appreciated, there’s no denying the results.
The combined effort of Beinhorn and the band led to international hits like “Black Hole Sun”. Chris Cornell wrote that song after Beinhorn pushed him to forget about writing just to please the fans. Instead, he urged Cornell to “write songs that you really love.” After two weeks, Cornell came back with demos for “Black Hole Sun” and “Fell On Black Days”.
Chris Cornell Found ‘Black Hole Sun’ Was Strange Enough That Its Popularity Didn’t Hinder the Band
Soundgarden was initially wary of the runaway success of “Black Hole Sun”. For some time, they didn’t even like to play it live. There was some fear that it would pigeonhole them, that they’d be expected to recreate that success with a similar song. But according to Cornell in 2014, that fear eventually abated.
“‘Black Hole Sun’ didn’t seem to corner us or create a problem,” said Cornell. “It provided a moment when a lot of eyes and ears were on us. We didn’t have to recreate ‘Black Hole Sun’, we never felt that need.”
How did such a monumental song come to be? Something with a legacy and reach like “Black Hole Sun” had to have a profound origin, right? Actually, as Chris Cornell once explained, it came from a TV news broadcast that he misheard and couldn’t stop thinking about.
“I wrote it in my head driving home from Bear Creek Studio … a 35-40 minute drive from Seattle,” he told Uncut in 2014. “It sparked from something a news anchor said on TV, and I heard wrong. I heard ‘blah blah blah black hole sun blah blah blah’. I thought that would make an amazing song title, but what would it sound like?”
He continued, “It all came together, pretty much the whole arrangement, including the guitar solo that’s played beneath the riff.
“I spent a lot of time spinning those melodies in my head so I wouldn’t forget them,” Cornell added. “I got home and whistled it into a Dictaphone. The next day, I brought it into the real world, assigning a key and adding a couple of key changes in the verse to make the melodies more interesting. Then I wrote the lyrics, and that was similar, a stream of consciousness based on the feeling I got from the chorus and the title.”
‘Black Hole Sun’ was Commercially Successful, But Kept the Band’s Psychedelic Identity
“Black Hole Sun” wasn’t typical of Soundgarden at the time. Because of that, Chris Cornell wasn’t sure if it would work for the album. He figured the band would like it, but ultimately decided it wasn’t their style. “I wasn’t sure of myself,” he admitted. But Beinhorn recognized its commercial potential, and the band actually liked that it wasn’t their usual work.
“I liked that it wasn’t heavy and visceral,” Ben Shepherd said. “It was melodic, but it was its own thing. We were pioneers, we didn’t have a formula.”
Once the rest of Soundgarden heard the demo for “Black Hole Sun”, they singled it out as a huge potential hit. But while that was exciting, there was also hesitation. Would they be expected to play it everywhere from then on? Would it hold them back in the future?
‘Black Hole Sun’ is certified 6× Platinum by the RIAA
“Our musical identity was something we’d worked hard for. Maybe that’s why we were a little tentative,” said Kim Thayil. But Cornell also found it difficult to deviate from Soundgarden’s established sound. “Black Hole Sun” created a contradiction. The band was thrilled with it, but also nervous about its potential success. Their producer thought it was brilliant, but Cornell felt it wasn’t Soundgarden enough.
Eventually, they decided to record it and see what happened. Soundgarden’s success came from their combined band effort, said Cornell. Recreating the demo but adding their individual personalities. For example, the guitar solo was a big moment for Kim Thayil.
“The solo allowed me to do something manic and noisy, which is one of a few things stylistically that augmented the song and brought out the dark, psychedelic Soundgarden side,” he said.
Cornell once quipped that he didn’t really understand the popularity of Black Hole Sun’
Along with the music video, “Black Hole Sun” became a summer hit. While Soundgarden knew it would, the success was still a little baffling. Mostly because the song doesn’t fit into any familiar categories for them.
“It was a good song for us to have as an international hit because it defied categorization on just about every level,” said Cornell. “It’s a moody, sombre song, but it was a summer smash, and the look of the video helped, with that eerie springtime thing. It creates a feeling, but I can’t tell you specifically what it is about. And if I can’t, how is somebody else going to connect to it? Maybe it’s just open enough that people can make it a soundtrack to their moment.”
He added, “I understand it even less now, and I’m baffled by what other people think about it.” Of the myriad cover versions of “Black Hole Sun”, Cornell said that each one digs into a different emotion, trying to reach the core of the song. Some got it, but others didn’t. Cornell, for his part, found it interesting when other artists got close to the core of the emotional connection. Because, he said, “whatever mine is, it’s more personal than intellectual.”
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