Soundgarden’s “Black Hole Sun” was released on May 13, 1994, as the third single from the band’s fourth studio album, Superunknown. Written by Chris Cornell and produced by Michael Beinhorn with Soundgarden, the song quickly became the group’s signature track and one of the defining rock songs of the 1990s.
Commercially, the song was a major breakthrough. It reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock / Album Rock Tracks chart and stayed there for seven weeks, becoming Soundgarden’s first No. 1 song on any Billboard chart. It also peaked at No. 2 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it finished as the No. 1 song of 1994 on that chart. On broader Billboard radio charts, it climbed to No. 9 on Mainstream Top 40 and appeared on the Hot 100 Airplay chart as well.
Outside the U.S., “Black Hole Sun” also became a worldwide rock radio and singles success. According to chart summaries, it reached the top 10 in Australia, Canada, France, and Ireland, hit No. 1 in Iceland, and also charted in the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Sweden, and other markets. Sales were strong enough to push the single past three million copies worldwide.
The song’s strange, surreal video helped turn it into a cultural event. Directed by Howard Greenhalgh, it premiered on MTV’s 120 Minutes on June 12, 1994, later received heavier visual effects in a revised version, and went on to win Best Metal/Hard Rock Video at the 1994 MTV Video Music Awards. It also later appeared on Soundgarden’s 1997 greatest-hits set A-Sides and the 2010 compilation Telephantasm.
More than just a hit, “Black Hole Sun” became the song that most people still associate with Soundgarden and with Chris Cornell himself. It captured the band at their commercial peak, gave Superunknown a lasting anthem, and helped define the darker, heavier edge of mainstream rock in the mid-1990s.
