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Cover of Live Through This by Hole
Cover: Live Through This

Song · Hole

“Violet” by Hole

From the album Live Through This (1994)

“Violet” by Hole appears on 34 radio countdowns from 24 stations between 1995 and 2025. It was first released in 1994 on the album Live Through This. Its best result is #12 on the KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1995. In the combined RockLists rankings it is the #51 alternative song of 1995, #1,423 alternative song of all time and #336 of the '90s.

34countdowns
24stations
#12best position
0#1 finishes
0top 10 finishes
1995–2025years charted

Watch

Hole - Violet (Official Music Video)

Video from YouTube (HoleVEVO). Pressing play loads YouTube's player. Watch on YouTube

"Violet" throws open Hole's second album, Live Through This, and it wastes no time drawing blood: a simmering verse that snaps into a full-throated roar, Courtney Love tearing at her voice over Eric Erlandson's grinding guitar. The two wrote it back in mid-1991 and road-tested it on Hole's early tours before Paul Q. Kolderie and Sean Slade produced it for Geffen, with Scott Litt mixing.

Love drew it from her stormy 1990 romance with Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan, though critics have heard Kurt Cobain in it too, and it seethes with resentment, exploitation and self-abasement. Issued as a single in 1995, it came wrapped in a Victorian mourning portrait of a dead girl, and its video set Love among strippers in an old dance hall, cut against ballerinas in a genteel theater.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.

RockLists rankings

Alternative & Modern Rock

Indie & Adult Alternative

All Rock Formats

Year-end countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1995 12 KROQ Los Angeles, CA KROQ Top 106.7 Songs of 1995 107
1995 47 91X San Diego, CA / Tijuana 91X Top 91 Songs of 1995 91
1995 50 Q101 Chicago, IL Q101 Top 101 Songs of 1995 101
1995 28 John Peel (BBC Radio 1) John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995 50
1995 55 Radio 104.1 Hartford-New Haven, CT WMRQ Top 104 Songs of 1995 104
1995 66 103.1 The Buzz West Palm Beach, FL The Buzz Top 103 Alternative Songs of '95 103
1995 90 Radio & Records United States (national airplay chart) Radio & Records Top 95 Songs of 1995 95
1995 64 WDRE Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA WDRE Top 103.9 Songs of 1995 104

All-time and decade countdowns

Year#StationCountdownof
1995 140 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 1995) 500
1995 42 Live 105 Live 105 Revolutionary 300 (July 1995) 300
1999 169 KROQ KROQ Top 300 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 1999) 300
1999 298 WHFS WHFS Top 500 Songs of the '90s (December 1999) 500
1999 192 91X 91X Fat 500 Songs of All-Time (July 1999) 500
1999 329 Q101 Q101 Top 1,011 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1017
1999 73 WFNX WFNX Top 500 Songs of All-Time (June 1999) 500
1999 147 107.7 The End The End Top 1077 Songs of All-Time (December 1999) 1077
1999 82 The Buzz The Buzz Top 99 Songs of All-Time (1999) 99
2002 679 Fred (XM 44) Fred XM Top 2002 Songs of All-Time (July 2002) 2002
2004 447 107.7 The End The End Original Alternative 500 (May 2004) 500
2004 53 WBCN WBCN Grunge Top 104 (2004) 104
2005 83 96.5 The Buzz 96.5 The Buzz Top 96 of the 90s 96
2005 803 99X 99X Freedom of Choice 1000 (2005) 1000
2006 490 KROQ KROQ Flashback 500 (Memorial Day 2006) 500
2007 344 KROQ KROQ Top 500 Most Requested Songs of the '90s (Labor Day 2007) 500
2018 720 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs 892
2021 243 90.9 The Bridge 90.9 The Bridge Top 909 Songs of the '90s 908
2021 365 105.9 The X 105.9 The X July 420 (2021) 420
2022 820 The Colorado Sound The Colorado Sound Top 900 Songs of the '90s 900
2022 288 105.9 The X 105.9 The X July 420 (2022) 420
2023 156 The Current The Current's 893 Essential Songs of the '90s 893
2023 262 105.9 The X 105.9 The X July 420 (2023) 420
2024 606 WYEP WYEP Best Songs of the Past 50 Years 1049
2024 86 KEXP The Best Opening Tracks of All Time 738
2025 19 WFPK WFPK Top 500 Songs of the '90s 500

Charting alongside it in 1995

Best songs of 1995 →
  1. 1You Oughta KnowAlanis Morissette
  2. 2LumpThe Presidents of the United States of America
  3. 3Lightning CrashesLive
  4. 4Bullet With Butterfly WingsThe Smashing Pumpkins
  5. 5NameGoo Goo Dolls
  6. 6My FriendsRed Hot Chili Peppers

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