"Pacific Coast Highway" is the fifteenth single from alternative rock

Alternative rock

Alternative rock is a genre of rock music and a term used to describe a diverse musical movement that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1980s and became widely popular by the 1990s...

 group Hole

Hole (band)

Hole is an American alternative rock band that originally formed in Los Angeles in 1989. The band is fronted by vocalist/songwriter and rhythm guitarist Courtney Love, who co-founded Hole with former songwriter/lead guitarist Eric Erlandson...

. It is the second single from the band's fourth studio album Nobody's Daughter

Nobody's Daughter

Nobody's Daughter is the fourth studio album by alternative rock band Hole, released worldwide on April 27, 2010 through Mercury Records. The album was originally conceived by Hole frontwoman Courtney Love as a solo project titled How Dirty Girls Get Clean, following her poorly-received solo debut...

. It was released as a digital download

Music download

A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...

 on April 6, 2010, and was added on Modern Rock

Modern rock

Modern rock is a rock format commonly found on commercial radio; the format consists primarily of the alternative rock genre...

 radio in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 on May 5, 2010.

Background and history

"Pacific Coast Highway" was written by Courtney Love

Courtney Love

Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...

 in a Los Angeles hotel on December 24, 2005. The song, which was one of the first to be recorded for her second studio album, How Dirty Girls Get Clean, in 2006, was later contributed to by producer Linda Perry

Linda Perry

Linda Perry is an American rock musician, songwriter, and record producer. Once best known as the lead singer and primary songwriter of 4 Non Blondes, Perry has founded two record labels and has become a major songwriter and producer...

 and Billy Corgan

Billy Corgan

William Patrick "Billy" Corgan, Jr. is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional poet best known as the frontman and sole permanent member of The Smashing Pumpkins. Formed by Corgan and guitarist James Iha in Chicago, Illinois in 1987, the band quickly gained steam with the...

. In 2009, when being recorded as a Hole song, various new additions were made to the song, most notably a solo and a final bridge, both of which were written by guitarist, Micko Larkin

Micko Larkin

Michael Joseph "Micko" Larkin is an English musician of Irish background, most notable as the lead guitarist of the indie rock band Larrikin Love and more recently, Hole.-Early life and career :...

.

Critical reception

The track was described by NME

NME

The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...

 as,

One of the earliest songs on the session, toughened up from the Perry era, this confessional song is nonetheless one of the record’s more plaintive moments, in the vein of 'Malibu'. Lyrically, it finally addresses the scars she still bears over her husband’s death in the most brutal fashion: "I knew a boy who came from the sea/he was the only boy who ever knew the truth about me... I knew a boy who left me so ravaged/do you even know the extent of the damage? ... I’m overwhelmed and undersexed?/Baby what did you expect?/I’m overwrought and so disgraced/I’m too ashamed to show my face/And they’re coming to take me away now/what I want I will never have/I’m on the Pacific Coast Highway/With your gun in my hand".

In its week of release it became the most added song to modern rock radio in the United States.

Music video

On May 24, 2010, Courtney Love stated that a promotional music video for "Pacific Coast Highway" was in the works.

Musicians and personnel

• Courtney Love
  Courtney Love
  Courtney Michelle Love is an American rock musician. Love is the lead vocalist, lyricist, and rhythm guitarist for alternative rock band Hole, which she formed in 1989, and is an actress who has moved from bit parts in Alex Cox films to significant and acclaimed roles in The People vs...
  
   - vocals
• Micko Larkin
  Micko Larkin
  Michael Joseph "Micko" Larkin is an English musician of Irish background, most notable as the lead guitarist of the indie rock band Larrikin Love and more recently, Hole.-Early life and career :...
  
   - guitars, additional producer
• Shawn Dailey - bass
• Stu Fisher
  Stu Fisher
  Stuart "Stu" Fisher is an English musician, notable for being the current drummer of alternative rock band Hole. Prior to becoming a member of Hole, Fisher was also the drummer of English psychedelic rock band Ozric Tentacles and also Fingermonster...
  
   - drums
• Jack Irons - additional drums
• Jenni Muldaur - backing vocals

• Michael Beinhorn
  Michael Beinhorn
  Michael Beinhorn is an American musician and record producer.Beinhorn started his professional career as a musician, playing keyboards in Bill Laswell's Material during the 1980s...
  
   - producer
• Owen Lewis - assistant producer
• Noah Goldstein - engineer
• Ryan Gilligan - additional engineer
• Ian Shea - additional engineer
• Pete Bischof - additional engineer
• D. Sardy - mixing

Release history

Region	Date	Format
United States	April 6, 2010	Digital download Music download A music download is the transferral of music from an Internet-facing computer or website to a user's local computer. This term encompasses both legal downloads and downloads of copyright material without permission or payment...