Songs

"Aching to Pupate" is a song originally composed, performed, recorded, and released by Regina Spektor. It was first performed and recorded as part of the Two Jews on Christmas session on 2001-12-25 and subsequently released on the album Songs in early 2002. Currently, the song is only available to listen via an out-of-print CD, as the album Songs is not available on streaming and has had no subsequent releases since the original CD pressings.

The first known live performance of "Aching to Pupate" occurred on 2002-05-04 at the Sidewalk Cafe in New York, NY. The song was played live two more times in 2003, reemerging after fourteen years for its final perfromance on 2017-11-02 at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee, WI for the 2017 Very Special Solo Tour.

"Aching to Pupate" was inspired by Regina's time spent in Luck, Wisconsin during the summer of 2001 after she graduated for SUNY Purchase. In an interview with Jeff Spevak from CITY Magazine, Regina was described as "running through fields, catching monarchs, putting them in wax envelopes, placing them in a tent with milkweed plants, watching as they laid eggs which produced larvae, which then underwent metamorphization into a chrysalis, which were then packaged in FedEx boxes", where they were then sent to museums and schools. She went on, “I remember closing my eyes and (seeing) thousands of caterpillars walking around in the dark, because I had been working with them all day. When I was working there, I couldn’t imagine a world where there wasn’t endless monarchs. It was a hippie experience, and I loved every moment of it. By the time I was done, I was ready to come home and lick the dirty New York City streets, because I missed it so much.”