Big Empty

Not to be confused with The Big Empty.

"Big Empty" is a song by American rock band Stone Temple Pilots that first appeared in 1994 on the soundtrack of the film The Crow. The band later included the song on its second album, Purple, and released it as the lead single from that album. The song reached No. 3 and No. 7 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks charts, respectively. The song won an MTV Movie Award for best song featured in a movie in 1995.^[4]

"Big Empty"
Australian CD picture sleeve
Single by Stone Temple Pilots
from the album The Crow: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack and Purple
B-side	"Lounge Fly"
Released	April 1994
Studio	The Record Plant
Genre	Grunge[1] hard rock[2] blues rock[3]
Length	4:55
Label	Atlantic
Composer(s)	Dean DeLeo
Lyricist(s)	Scott Weiland
Producer(s)	Brendan O'Brien
Stone Temple Pilots singles chronology
"Creep" (1993) "Big Empty" (1994) "Vasoline" (1994)
Audio sample
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Musically, the song has a similar format to the band's previous single "Creep", beginning with a slow, soft acoustic verse that leads into a loud and distorted chorus with a heavy guitar similar to "Plush".^[5][6][7] "Big Empty" appears on the greatest hits compilation albums Thank You and Buy This.

Critical reception

AllMusic critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine wrote that "'Big Empty' is a perfect encapsulation of mainstream alienation"^[8] and praised it as a highlight on Purple.

Live performances

The song was performed live for the first time during a taping of MTV Unplugged on November 17, 1993,^[9] seven months before Purple was released. "Big Empty" was not included when their Unplugged episode debuted in January 1994. However, in May to help promote The Crow soundtrack, MTV placed the Unplugged performance of "Big Empty" into their heavy video rotation, as there was never an official promo video for the song. On STP's 2008 reunion tour, "Big Empty" was the opening song for every show except for the band's performance at the Virgin Mobile Festival in Baltimore on August 10.^[10]

Charts

Weekly charts Chart (1994–1995) Peak position Australia (ARIA)[11] 63 US Radio Songs (Billboard)[12] 50 US Alternative Airplay (Billboard)[13] 7 US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)[14] 3

Year-end charts Chart (1994) Position US Album Rock Tracks (Billboard)[15] 10 US Modern Rock Tracks (Billboard)[15] 36