Smashing Pumpkins' 'Bullet With Butterfly Wings' Flying Up The Charts With A Bullet

Halloween jack o’ lanterns never glowed brighter than they did in October 1995, when the Smashing Pumpkins beamed down their sonic masterpiece from the mothership of Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness. On October 6, the world tilted on its axis as “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” roared across the airwaves like a meteor shower of molten angst. It wasn’t just a single—it was a seismic event. Billy Corgan, trapped in the gilded cage of stardom, bent the bars with a scream and a snarl, unleashing a song that felt like a jailbreak from the soul. 

By then, the Pumpkins were already legends-in-the-making. With just two albums under their belt, they’d carved out a space on the fringes of grunge, defying easy categorization and embracing a kaleidoscope of styles. But “Bullet” was pure, uncut grunge gold. It crept in with eerie minimalism—ghostly guitar, pulsing bass, and whispering drums—before detonating into a chorus so explosive it felt like the walls of your bedroom were shaking. It was a prison break in power chords.

Nothing sucked in listeners like the snarling acapella first line, “The world is a vampire” and then the music starts: “sent to drain,” No intro, no warning—just Corgan’s voice, raw and venomous, setting the tone for a track that bled with metaphor and meaning.  The bloodsuckers, the fans, and those new to the Pumpkins all drank Corgan’s blood as if it were wine with this song.  Anti-establishment anger and rage was all the rage in the 1990s and almost nothing better represented those sentiments of passionate fury dosed with the reality that often we are powerless to avoid succumbing to the compromise bigger entities force upon us.  

“And what do I get for my pain?” Corgan wonders aloud to his friends, fans, and enemies.  “Betrayed desires and a piece of the game,” he sings nasally, as guitarist James Iha, bassist D’Arcy Wretsky, and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin get ready to rev up the stakes in the pre-chorus, as the song builds high like the latest Chicago skyscraper for the smashing chorus.  Many of the era’s stars felt like they were playing a game with corporations who didn’t care about their true emotional authenticity, seeing them as products that would sell angst message to 1990s youth.  

Though the Pumpkins were tapping into one of the decade’s biggest themes, the corporations who made money off of “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, had no problem being the enemy in a song because they benefitted financially. 

The famous refrain, “Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage” was true for so many artists and still is now.  Corgan had every intention to hit the big time with a major label and once he was successful, he basked in the spotlight but also understood how much of an evil game the record industry can be. 

The record was an enormous success on several levels.  It cemented Smashing Pumpkins success beyond one major album selling in big numbers.  As the lead single for Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, it was evidence that the Pumpkins would be around for as long as they wanted.  It broke out of its ‘alternative rock’ cage, and found its way up to #22 on the Billboard Hot 100 Singles chart, a rarity for an alternative rock song.  It also hit #2 on the Modern Rock chart and #4 on the Mainstream Rock chart.  It finished in the U.S. yearlong top 50 rock songs and #1 most successful rock song in Canada. It wasn't quite a #1 with a bullet as they say, yet the song did have butterfly wings - strong enough to last for three decades as one of the best post-grunge songs of all-time. It won the 1997 Grammy for 'Best Hard Rock Performance'. 'Rolling Stone' ranked it the 70th best guitar song of all-time.

The Samuel Bayer-directed music video marked the final appearance ever of Billy Corgan’s hair.  Yes, his hair retired after this song and by the album’s second single, “1979”, it was shaved away.  It has made zero appearances since, and has not accepted any reunion offers with Billy.  His hair looked fine, but Corgan made the decision anyway.  He would join R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe as shaved bald singers in the alt. rock world and Ed Kowalcyzk of Live would soon follow.  But the video itself was a stunner typical of Bayer, who had directed the music videos for The Cranberries’ “Zombie”, possibly the most popular rock song of 1994, and possibly alt. rock’s most known song, Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”.  Both videos are all-time classics and the Pumpkins made the correct choice here. 

Out in a wet field, the Pumpkins and a bunch of fans form a moshpit out of a mudpit and it’s Woodstock ’94 all over again except Corgan, dressed in his ‘ZERO’ shirt, is rocking out at the top of the hill as if he is “the chosen one,” as he sings in the lyrics.  Their “Zero” single had yet to be released at the time.  It’s a raging mess of adrenaline kids scampering up mini-mudslide while the band rock out like they’re trying to cause an avalanche. 

The Pumpkins could do nothing wrong in this era with hit after hit, even their B-side collection, Pisces Iscariot had a hit single in their cover of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” that was still lingering on the charts early in 1995.  “Bullet with Butterfly Wings” was their return to radio after half a year and fans couldn’t be happier.  It remains one of grunge’s greatest songs capturing a big chunk of counterculture thought in the 1990s with fantastic songwriting.   The Pumpkins created their own ‘landslide’ with the music video and a bunch more fame came rolling their way.