Where Did You Sleep Last Night

Often known as "In the Pines" or "Black Girl," this Appalachian folk tune was entirely reinvented by Lead Belly. By 1944, he was living in New York and running in folk-revival circles, but his performance of this murder ballad retained all its rural menace. He dramatically slowed the tempo, delivering the chilling lyrics with a haunting, mournful groan over the stark, repetitive strumming of his twelve-string guitar. His interpretation became one of the best-known modern renditions of the song, a mood perfectly resurrected fifty years later when Kurt Cobain screamed it at the climax of Nirvana's MTV Unplugged set.