The Beatles - had a rather large impact on Nirvana. When Kurt was living with his aunt, she always had Beatles records lying around, so Kurt listened to them and liked them, and was eventually influenced, without knowing it.
Black Sabbath - influenced the hard edge of their music. Kurt himself said "We sound like the Bay City Rollers after an assault by Black Sabbath."
Sonic Youth - were a major influence of Nirvana. Nirvana joined Geffen partly because Sonic Youth was very happy with Geffen.
Vaselines - were definetely the biggest influence of Nirvana. They were Kurt's and Krist's favorite band. "Definitely our number one favourite band." Nirvana covered several of their songs - Molly's Lips, Son of a Gun, and Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam.
Meat Puppets - also had some influence on the band. As you know Nirvana performed three of their songs - Oh Me, Plateau, & Lake of Fire during MTV Unplugged.
R.E.M. - Stripe was always a friend of Kurt. Both were influenced by each other's songs. Before his death, Kurt was supposed to meet with Stripe to experiment with some acoustical or instrumental music. A day before the date, Kurt called Michael and said he cannot come. Several days later he was found dead.
The Melvins - "grew up" with Nirvana. During the the 80's the two bands often interchanged guitarists, bassists, and drummers. Dale Crover and Buzz Osbourne for example were part of both bands at one point in time.
The Wipers - were also an influence on Nirvana. Nirvana covered several of their songs - Dimentia 7 and Return of the Rat.
Kiss - definetely had some influence on Nirvana which covered one of their songs - Do You Love Me.
The Pixies - The pixies once ruled the planet with their power and wit. A college band who reached their peak in the early nineties, are still considered along with Nirvana and Sonic Youth as the Grandparents of "Punk/Grunge"
Devo - Kurt said that propably the first record he could buy was by Devo. Nirvana covered one of Devo's songs - Turnaround
Info Provided by ~Nevermind: A Tribute To Nirvana~
