Song · Hole
“Awful” by Hole
From the album Celebrity Skin (1998)
“Awful” by Hole appears on 16 radio countdowns from 11 stations between 1999 and 2002. It was first released in 1998 on the album Celebrity Skin. Its best result is #33 on the WFNX Top 99 Songs of 1999. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #49 alternative song of 1999, #4,182 alternative song of all time and #381 of the '90s.
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Video from YouTube (HoleVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube
Hole pulled "Awful" off Celebrity Skin, their third album, as a CD single on Geffen in April 1999, and it's Courtney Love taking aim at the media machine and the pop culture that chews up young girls, then urging those girls to fight back. Love wrote the words first, and they sprawled across more than two pages before she cut them down to size; writing them meant looking back at the furious kid she used to be through older, wiser eyes. She called the result funny and kind of sad, and counted it among her own favorites. The lyric even sneaks in a nod to the spiritual "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot".
The music is credited to Love, Eric Erlandson, Melissa Auf der Maur and Patty Schemel, Michael Beinhorn produced and Tom Lord-Alge mixed, and it comes out bright and glossy, a sugar rush with a sting in it.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
RockLists rankings
Alternative & Modern Rock
All Rock Formats
Year-end countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 50 | KROQ Los Angeles, CA | KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1999 | 107 |
| 1999 | 75 | 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana | 91X Top 91 Songs of 1999 | 91 |
| 1999 | 52 | Live 105 San Francisco, CA | Live 105 Top 105.3 Songs of 1999 | 106 |
| 1999 | 59 | Q101 Chicago, IL | Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1999 | 101 |
| 1999 | 64 | WHFS Washington, DC / Baltimore, MD | WHFS Top 99.1 Songs of 1999 | 100 |
| 1999 | 66 | K-Rock New York, NY | K-Rock Top 92 Songs of 1999 | 92 |
| 1999 | 33 | WFNX Boston, MA | WFNX Top 99 Songs of 1999 | 99 |
| 1999 | 60 | 107.7 The End Seattle, WA | The End Top 107 Songs of 1999 | 107 |
| 1999 | 55 | 89X Detroit, MI / Windsor, ON | 89X Top 89 Songs of 1999 | 89 |
| 1999 | 63 | Radio & Records United States (national airplay chart) | Radio & Records Top 104 Songs of 1999 | 104 |
All-time and decade countdowns
| Year | # | Station | Countdown | of |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | 1001 | Q101 | Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1017 |
| 1999 | 258 | 107.7 The End | The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 1077 |
| 1999 | 1912 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2000 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) | 2000 |
| 2000 | 1913 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2001 Songs of All-Time (December 2000) | 2001 |
| 2001 | 1915 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (December 2001) | 2002 |
| 2002 | 1900 | CD101 | CD101 Top 2003 Songs of All-Time (December 2002) | 2003 |
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