Bush released “Glycerine” on November 14, 1995, as the fourth single from their debut album, Sixteen Stone. Gavin Rossdale’s vocal and distorted guitar carried a recording with no drums, while Nigel Pulsford’s string arrangement gave the song another source of tension.
Rossdale’s writing setup was basic enough to carry around. In a 2024 Guitar World interview, he described recording guitar ideas on one tape machine, then playing them back while singing into another. “Glycerine” came together more quickly than that piecemeal process usually allowed. He remembered switching on a recorder in his London basement bedroom and writing it in two passes. The result seemed so much more accomplished than his earlier work that he worried he’d accidentally reproduced somebody else’s song.
Pulsford helped develop those ideas into the songs on Bush’s first album. Rossdale described his own guitar playing as instinctive and raw, with Pulsford supplying a more meticulous approach informed by jazz and classical music. Their partnership gave Rossdale someone who could find parts that worked around his voice and improve the songs he brought in. On “Glycerine,” that contribution would extend beyond lead guitar.
At London’s West Side Studios, producers Clive Langer and Alan Winstanley considered how far to expand a song Rossdale had demoed with guitar and voice. In Mix’s 2024 recording retrospective, their memories of trying a fuller arrangement were tentative. Langer thought they had experimented with bass and drums entering later, then removed them. “I think we just didn’t need it,” he said. Rossdale recalled a mix that seemed to leave room for drums to arrive. The finished recording kept that space open, preserving the exposed guitar and voice.
The strings added something more personal. Rossdale told Classic Rock in 2025 that Pulsford’s father had died during the making of the album and that the guitarist wrote the arrangement for him. Violin, viola and cello supplied movement without a rhythm section taking over. Leaving the drums out also let that writing remain audible, particularly as the song reached its closing passage.
The words retained some of the immediacy of the home recording, too. Speaking to SPIN in 2023, Rossdale said he often sang provisional words while developing a melody, replacing them later. With “Glycerine,” much of what first emerged stayed. He also defended the fragmented way he wrote: he preferred phrases that moved through an emotional situation to a straightforward chronological account. That left room for listeners to connect the song to their own experiences, something he regarded as part of its success.
The sparse arrangement reached a broad audience. “Glycerine” topped Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart in December 1995 and reached No. 28 on the Hot 100 in February 1996. Its Kevin Kerslake-directed music video went on to win the Viewer’s Choice award at the 1996 MTV Video Music Awards.
