“Nothing Else Matters” is a song by American band Metallica. It was released in 1992 as the third single from their self-titled fifth studio album. The song peaked at number 11 on the Billboard chart, number 6 on the UK Singles Chart, number 1 in Denmark, and reached the top ten on many other European charts. “Nothing Else Matters” was featured as a playable track in the music video game Guitar Hero: Metallica. Recognized as one of Metallica’s best known and most popular songs, the power ballad has become a staple in live performances.
Lead singer and rhythm guitarist James Hetfield wrote the song (credited to Hetfield/Ulrich) in 1990 while on tour, when Hetfield “was bumming out about being away from home.” Initially, the song was not meant to be released, as Hetfield had written it for himself, but after drummer Lars Ulrich heard it, it was considered for the album. Hetfield initially had reservations about presenting the song to the band: “I thought that Metallica could only be the four of us. These are songs about destroying things, head banging, bleeding for the crowd, whatever it is, as long as it wasn’t about chicks and fast cars, even though that’s what we liked. The song was about a girlfriend at the time. It turned out to be a pretty big song.” It was one of four demo songs recorded by the band in August 1990.
The music video premiered on MTV in February 1992. It was directed by Adam Dubin and edited by Sean Fullan. The clip consists of parts of a documentary, which was shot during the recordings of Metallica. One of them shows Hetfield playing a Gibson EDS-1275 guitar during the second chorus. MTV will not air the video during daytime hours anymore because it features nudity in the form of pin-up posters and Playboy centerfolds that are taped up in the studio. In August 2021, the music video hit one billion views on YouTube, making it Metallica’s first music video to do so. The song has now become a staple in Metallica’s live performances, and has been dedicated to their fans.
In January 2021, it was announced that Miley Cyrus would be releasing a cover version that would feature Elton John on piano, drummer Chad Smith from Red Hot Chili Peppers, current Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo and cellist Yo-Yo Ma. Cyrus also announced in October 2020 that she plans to release a full album of Metallica covers. Cyrus previously covered “Nothing Else Matters” during her 2019 set at Glastonbury.
Gregorian is a German band headed by Frank Peterson that performs Gregorian chant-inspired versions of modern pop and rock songs. In 1999, they recovered their version to be included on their album Masters of Chant.
