Help the Aged

It was released on 10 November 1997 as the lead single from This Is Hardcore and reached number eight in the UK, the band's fifth consecutive top ten single. It was one of the first songs written for the album, and the only one the band had when sessions began. Cocker said at the time that he was 34 and had been aware of ageing for a couple of years, and that it was not a plea about helping people cross the road. He summed it up as him whining on about getting old, and later said he was proud to have got a record about getting old and dying into the top ten.

Russell Senior left before it came out and cited his dislike of the song among his reasons. He said he tried to avoid it being released. The B-side Tomorrow Never Lies was written for the James Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies and was passed over in favour of a Sheryl Crow song. John Currin, who worked on the album's sleeve, was art director of the video, shot at Stoke Newington Town Hall. Rolling Stone's Greg Kot wrote that Pulp reach out to the inevitable with resignation, compassion and humor.