"Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" is a song originally recorded by the Scottish alternative band the Vaselines. It was later covered by American rock band Nirvana in 1993 who renamed it "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam".
The song was little-known outside the indie-pop scene until Seattle grunge band Nirvana recorded the song in November 1993 for their live acoustic album MTV Unplugged in New York, re-titling it "Jesus Doesn't Want Me for a Sunbeam".[3]
Two more versions were released by Nirvana on their 2004 box set With the Lights Out. These were an acoustic version recorded in Portugal in 1994, and a live electric performance on the DVD section of the box set that was recorded at the Paramount Theatre in Seattle on October 31, 1991.[4] This version was re-released in 2011 as a bonus track on the 20th anniversary edition of the Nevermind album and on the Live at the Paramount DVD and Blu-ray.[5]
In the version featured on the MTV Unplugged in New York album, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain refers to the song as "a rendition of an old Christian song, I think. But we do it the Vaselines' way."[6] At a Nirvana concert that took place on December 30, 1993, at the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, California, Cobain dedicated the song to the recently deceased River Phoenix.[7]
