Today – Smashing Pumpkins

“Today” is one of the most popular songs of the 1990s, and is also responsible for one of the most recognizable riffs of the decade. The song was recorded in the early 90s as the Smashing Pumpkins were on the verge of collapse. Members in the band were beginning to develop drug problems, being pigeonholed by the media, and starting therapy. Lead singer Billy Corgan was losing “the ability to function” and contemplated ending his life.

“I was completely suicidal,” Corgan once said of the era. “I wrote that song in a cold bedroom on a day where it was like, ‘I’m either going to kill myself today, or I’m going to live because I’m sick of thinking about this.’”

Yet even with the lyrics, the song is often misinterpreted as an optimistic one, as recently evidenced from the chorus being used in a Visa commercial.

This is part one in a continuing series, entitled “The Happiest Sounding Sad Songs.”