In January, when Nevermind would go to number one on the Billboard album chart, Geffen president Eddie Rosenblatt was asked by the New York Times to describe the label’s marketing strategy and he modestly answered, “Get out of the way and duck.” It was indisputably true that “Smells Like Teen Spirit” had so much magic that it made everyone’s job a lot easier, and there is no question that the song would have been huge no matter who was or wasn’t involved with it. Nevertheless, the band and DGC did spend a lot of time and energy launching Nirvana’s major-label career in a particular way.
