When a band from Aberdeen, Washington called Nirvana, who’d thus far failed to chart in America with their debut Sub Pop album Bleach, released their Nevermind album on 24 September 1991, few would have guessed what was about to happen.

A UK debut at No. 36 in early October hardly made it obvious, nor did a cautious entry to the Billboard 200 at No. 144 on the 12th of that month. But on 11 January 1992, the group’s Geffen Records debut replaced Michael Jackson’s Dangerous at the top of that US chart, and Nirvana officially ruled America.

Nevermind made fast strides after that modest US arrival, with its first showing in the top 20 in early November 1991, and gold and platinum status confirmed simultaneously later that month.

The catalyst that helped it conquer the album survey was the band’s signature single ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit,’ which started its own rapid rise in the December and went on to peak at No. 6, turning platinum for one million US sales.

But even that achievement paled by comparison with the parent album, as Nevermind went on to be both a critical landmark and a commercial juggernaut.

It ranked No.17 in Rolling Stone’s all-time top 500 album list and racked up a chart life of five years, with a 252-week run on the survey. Suddenly, everyone also wanted to know about that overlooked debut album, and Bleach made its own chart debut in January 1992, two and a half years after release.