The album contains liner notes by music journalist David Fricke of Rolling Stone magazine. The Japanese version includes the Unplugged version of ' Something in the Way', which was released as a B-side to the 'About a Girl' single in 1994, as the second-to-last track. All non-US and Canadian versions of the album end with ' Where Did You Sleep Last Night', another song from MTV Unplugged in New York, from which it was also released as a promotional single. The Northern American version of the album closes with two songs from MTV Unplugged in New York, ' All Apologies' and ' The Man Who Sold the World', both of which were released as promotional singles from the album (the studio version of 'All Apologies', which appears on In Utero, was released as that album's second single in 1993, as a double A-side with 'Rape Me'). The final studio track is the In Utero song ' Dumb', which was never released as a single, but has become a popular song on alternative rock radio stations. Prior to the release of Nirvana, this remix was only commercially available on the censored Wal-Mart and Kmart versions of In Utero, released in March 1994. The version of 'Pennyroyal Tea' included is the remix by Scott Litt, which was prepared for the song's single, but the single was recalled after Cobain's death in April 1994. These are followed by ' Heart-Shaped Box', ' Pennyroyal Tea' and ' Rape Me', three singles from the band's third and final studio album, In Utero, released in 1993. The next four songs, ' Smells Like Teen Spirit', ' Come as You Are', ' Lithium' and ' In Bloom', are the commercially released singles from the band's second album and major label debut, Nevermind, released in 1991. The fourth song on the compilation is ' Sliver', which was released as a non-album single in 1990, the band's final release on Sub Pop (the same version appears on Incesticide). 'Been a Son' was previously only available on Nirvana's 1989 Blew EP, a limited UK release. The album's producer, Jack Endino, originally saw the song as a potential single, and a live version, from Nirvana's 1993 MTV Unplugged performance, was released as a commercial single to promote the band's 1994 album MTV Unplugged in New York. It is followed by ' About a Girl', the only inclusion from Nirvana's 1989 debut album, Bleach.

The first song on the album's otherwise chronological track listing is ' You Know You're Right', which was also released as a downloadable single. In September 2002, it was officially announced that the lawsuit had been settled, and that 'You Know You're Right' would be released on ' Nirvana, a one-CD history of the band,' in November, with the box set to follow in 2004. Love's lawsuit maintained that 'You Know You're Right' was a 'potential 'hit' of extraordinary artistic and commercial value.' She believed the song would be 'wasted' on a box set, and instead belonged on a single-disc compilation similar to The Beatles' 1. However, Love blocked the song's release, and sued Novoselic and Grohl over control of Nirvana's legacy. The dispute was largely centered around 'You Know You're Right,' which Novoselic and Grohl had wanted to release on a long-delayed Nirvana rarities box set. Nirvana was released following the settlement of a long-standing legal dispute between Cobain's widow, Courtney Love, and surviving Nirvana members Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl.

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