Songfacts®:

• "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns" tells the story of Mother Love Bone frontman Andrew Wood, his heroin addiction, and his fiancé, Xana La Fuente. La Fuente danced in a strip club to support the pair as Wood tried to break through in the music industry, hence the "dancer" in the title. She only lasted one hour before deciding it wasn't for her.
  
  La Fuente, who's mentioned by her first name in the Mother Love Bone song "Stargazer," tried to help Wood beat his heroin addiction.
  
  On RememberLayne.com, La Fuente explained, "This song is about a relationship ruined by drugs. He wrote it about our near breakup, and how I tried to control him and the drugs - hence his allusion to being tied to the ceiling."
  
  Wood did manage to get his heroin addiction under control for 116 days, but the day he invited the drug back into his life - March 19, 1990 - he overdosed and died.
  
  His passing affected many in the Seattle music scene, and even though he was gone before the "grunge explosion" of the '90s, he holds a firm place in music history. Many there felt he would have been of the area's biggest stars had he survived.
• This song is really two songs joined together. There's a clear line where they fit together as the drums and guitar of "Crown of Thorns" break into the piano of "Chloe Dancer" at the 1:58 mark. The combined track, "Chloe Dancer/Crown of Thorns," was released on Mother Love Bone's 1989 EP Shine. "Crown of Thorns" was released on its own as the 13th and final track on the group's 1990 album Apple. The "Chloe Dancer" part has never been released on its own.
• Cameron Crowe included the song in his 1989 film Say Anything..., but it wasn't included on the film's soundtrack. He used it again in his 1992 film Singles, two years after Wood's death.
• This is one of Mother Love Bone's most appreciated songs. Many critics have praised it over the years, and because of its inclusion on Singles, it is the only Mother Love Bone track many people know offhand.
• Rolling Stone included this on its "Fifty Best Songs over Seven Minutes Long" list.
• Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard, who later formed Pearl Jam, were in Mother Love Bone along with Wood, Bruce Fairweather and Greg Gilmore. The entire band is credited as writers on this track.
  
  Pearl Jam played "Crown Of Thorns" live for the first time at a show in Las Vegas on October 22, 2000, celebrating the 10-year anniversary of the first time they performed together. It was an emotional performance, as Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder revealed that it was his favorite Mother Love Bone song.
  
  "Playing 'Crown Of Thorns,' it was the first time I properly reflected on what we'd gone through and what a journey it's been," Ament said in the Pearl Jam book Twenty. "That moment was reflected in a purely positive way, feeling blessed, happy to still be playing music."
  
  Pearl Jam released this performance as their annual fan club singer and included it in their setlists from time to time.