Kurt Cobain, the acclaimed Nirvana frontman who committed suicide in 1994, vaulted to the top of Forbes' sixth annual list of top-earning dead celebrities, dethroning Elvis Presley, who had held the list's top slot since its inception.

Nirvana

Although Nirvana's music continues to sell--1.1 million units were sold in the US in 2005, according to Nielsen SoundScan--Cobain had never before appeared on the list, as he and his former bandmates Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic had rejected licensing their songs for commercial use.

That changed with Cobain widow Courtney Love's sale of a 25 percent stake in his song catalog to New York-based publishing company Primary Wave for a reported $50 million. Cobain's earnings were pegged at $50 million between October 2005 and October 2006, the period on which Forbes based its rankings.

Presley wound up in the No. 2 slot with $42 million, down from last year's $45 million, while John Lennon placed fourth at $24 million. Ray Charles and Johnny Cash, whose estates have benefited from biopics and several posthumous releases, placed eighth and 10th, respectively earning $10 million and $8 million. George Harrison and Bob Marley rounded out the 13-member list at $7 million apiece.

But it is Cobain's rise to the top of the list that may surprise many Nirvana fans.

The cover of Nirvana's 1991 breakthrough album, Nevermind, featured a swimming baby approaching a dollar bill attached to a fishing line, and Cobain appeared on the cover of Rolling Stone a year later wearing a T-shirt that declared, "Corporate Magazines Still Suck."

When Love announced in April of this year that she had sold a 25 percent stake in the song catalog--Love controlled approximately 97 percent of the catalog, she sought to quell the anticommercialism fears of fans by saying, "We are going to remain very tasteful and true to the spirit of Nirvana while taking the music to places it has never been before."

Primary Wave CEO Lawrence Mestel, a former top executive at Virgin Records, told Forbes that his top priority is to explore commercial opportunities without overexposing or compromising the spirit of the music.

"You will never see Kurt Cobain's music in a fast-food hamburger advertisement--that won't ever happen,'' Mestel sais. "We're looking at things that relate to cutting-edge technologies, products that are green and eco-friendly, products that Kurt would have liked to have his music represented by.''

The most prominent example of that effort will be a forthcoming episode of CBS drama CSI: Miami, which will prominently feature several Nirvana recordings.

Primary Wave is also considering other licensing pacts leading up to the 20th anniversary of Sub Pop Records' 1989 release of Bleach, Nirvana's first album. Love has previously licensed Nirvana songs for use in the HBO show Six Feet Under and the movie Jarhead. Mestel said Nirvana fans should trust that the catalog is in good hands.

"Even though the financial opportunity may be fantastic, if it doesn't enhance the value of the music, we won't do it,'' he said.