Holocaust

Holocaust is on the 1975 test pressing of Third and on every later version of the album. Rolling Stone's Parke Putterbaugh wrote that no pop song had ever bottomed out more than this one, an anguished plaint sung at a snail's pace over discordant slide-guitar fragments and moaning cello. John Borack called it Alex Chilton at his haunting best.

Writing about Complete Third, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Pitchfork found Chilton's early demos of Holocaust, Nightime and Kanga Roo brokenhearted rather than desolate.

Covers

This Mortal Coil covered it on their debut LP It'll End in Tears, and the Paisley Underground group Rainy Day recorded it in 1984 with Kendra Smith singing lead. Son Volt recorded it on a 1999 promo EP, and Placebo included it on the 2000 single Slave to the Wage.