"Black Hole Sun" is a slow rock ballad in English by Chris Cornell, who wrote its music and lyrics. He said the idea came while he was driving home from Bear Creek Studio, from a news anchor line he misheard, and that the lyrics were written afterwards as a stream of consciousness. Soundgarden released it in 1994 as the third single from the album Superunknown, produced by Michael Beinhorn, with a solo by Kim Thayil. Cornell called the lyrics a surreal dreamscape and said the song is sad even though its melody sounds chipper. Its music video, which shows a suburban neighbourhood swallowed when the Sun becomes a black hole, won MTV's award for Best Metal/Hard Rock Video in 1994. The single topped the Billboard Album Rock Tracks chart for seven weeks, sold over three million copies and won the 1995 Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Critics praised its Beatlesque quality, and the solo ranked 63rd on Guitar World's list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Solos. It became the band's signature song and appears on the compilations A-Sides and Telephantasm.
