“Kool Thing” was written by Sonic Youth and appears as the lead single from their 1990 major-label debut album Goo. The song grew out of an interview Kim Gordon conducted with LL Cool J for Spin magazine in 1989. Gordon came away disappointed by his attitude toward punk and women and channeled the encounter into the track. Public Enemy’s Chuck D contributed the spoken-word responses simply because he was recording down the hall at the same studio. Released in 1990, the song reached No. 7 on Billboard’s Modern Rock Tracks chart and No. 81 on the UK Singles Chart. It became Sonic Youth’s highest-charting single on alternative radio at the time and remains one of their best-known tracks.

“Down in a Hole” was written by Jerry Cantrell for Alice in Chains’ 1992 album Dirt. The studio version was released as a single in 1993 and reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. It has long been regarded as one of the band’s most emotionally direct songs, built around Cantrell’s dual-guitar arrangement and the layered vocals of Cantrell and Layne Staley. The acoustic performance from the band’s MTV Unplugged session, recorded on 10 April 1996 at the Majestic Theater in Brooklyn, became equally famous. It was one of the last major appearances by Staley with the group. Jerry Cantrell later said he felt extremely ill that day and was on an IV before the show, but the performance itself is widely considered one of the defining moments of both the band and the Unplugged series.