"Jesus Wants Me for a Sunbeam" is a song originally recorded by the Scottish
alternative band
the Vaselines for their
EP Dying for It. It is a parody of the Christian children's hymn "
I'll Be a Sunbeam", which has the opening line "Jesus wants me for a sunbeam." The Vaselines re-released the song in 1992 on the compilation albums
The Way of The Vaselines: A Complete History, and
All the Stuff and More. In the version featured on the
MTV Unplugged in New York album, Nirvana frontman
Kurt Cobain refers to the song as "a rendition of an old Christian song, I think. But we do it the Vaselines' way." At a Nirvana concert that took place on 30 December 1993, at the
Great Western Forum in
Inglewood, California, Cobain dedicated the song to the recently deceased
River Phoenix. Two more versions were released by Nirvana on their 2004 box set
With the Lights Out. These were an acoustic version recorded in
Portugal in 1994, and a live electric performance on the DVD section of the box set that was recorded at the
Paramount Theatre in
Seattle on 31 October 1991. This version was re-released in 2011 as a bonus track on the 20th anniversary edition of the
Nevermind album and on the
Live at the Paramount DVD and Blu-ray. ==References==