
The recording featured Kera Schaley on cello, who also played on " Dumb," and was the only musician to appear on the album other than the band members. The song, at that point tentatively titled "La La La," was recorded on February 14.

Nirvana recorded the song for their third album, In Utero, in February 1993 with Steve Albini at Pachyderm Studios in Cannon Falls, Minnesota. "All Apologies" was first performed live at the Wolverhampton Civic Hall in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England on November 6, 1991. Gaar as "having a more upbeat pop- folk sound" than later versions, featured bassist Krist Novoselic accompanying Cobain on guitar, playing seventh chords behind the guitar riff, and Grohl's drumming accented by a tambourine. This version, described by music journalist Gillian G. The song was first recorded in the studio by Craig Montgomery at Music Source Studios in Seattle, Washington on January 1, 1991.

I remember hearing it and thinking, 'God, this guy has such a beautiful sense of melody, I can't believe he's screaming all the time.'" In 2005, drummer Dave Grohl recalled that the song was "something that Kurt wrote on 4-track in our apartment in Olympia. "All Apologies" was written by Cobain in 1990.
