This Is Hardcore

It was the second single from This Is Hardcore, released in Japan on 11 March 1998 and in the UK on 16 March, and it reached number 12. Cocker said the song is a bit about fame: after watching pornography on tour he was struck by how people get used up in it, much as people get used in the entertainment business. The track is built on a sample of Bolero on the Moon Rocks by the Peter Thomas Sound Orchestra, which Cocker said he jigsawed together through the song. He wanted to get away from verse-chorus structure while keeping a melody.

Choosing it as a single was controversial in the band. Mackey called it a challenge in song and a gauntlet for the rest of the year, while Mark Webber said he never liked it. Doug Nichol directed the video, which recreates vintage Hollywood scenes including a Busby Berkeley style dance routine. NME later listed it 47th among the best videos of all time, and Pitchfork named it 16th best of the 1990s. In NME, Sylvia Patterson called the single possibly the creepiest ever released by a commercial artist and wrote that it is awful and brilliant. The Guardian included it among Pulp's ten best songs.