It was released as the lead single from their 1995 double album Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, and is the sixth track on the first disc.

[11] Corgan wrote the noted chorus "rat in a cage" on an acoustic guitar during the same session that "Landslide" was recorded.

[14][15] The New York Times noted of a 2014 concert by the band that "one chorus always gets the Smashing Pumpkins' fans shouting along", identifying the line as: "Despite all my rage, I am still just a rat in a cage".

[17][18] The filming location was a quarry located in the Simi Valley California hills, most likely the mining pits of the Gillibrand Industrial Sands facility, located adjacent to the Big Sky Film Ranch[19] The visual look of the video was inspired by the work of Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado on gold mining,[20][21] while, in contrast, the band used the video to debut their new glam rock wardrobes - notably, Billy Corgan's black shirt with the word "Zero" written in silver, and silver pants.

[23][24] When asked why the band chose Bullet for the first video, Corgan responded "the record company did a survey of K-Mart shoppers between 30 and 40 and this is the song they came up with".

[58] "Weird Al" Yankovic performed the chorus in "The Alternative Polka" from his Bad Hair Day album.

Laurenson was uploaded in 2016,[64] which had gone viral and later served as the basis for various trailers, including Rampage in 2018,[65] Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II in 2022,[66] and The Last Voyage of the Demeter in 2023.