[2] Tone Lōc's song peaked at number two on the Billboard Hot 100 in February 1989, only behind Paula Abdul's breakthrough hit "Straight Up".

Van Halen's management at the time asked for a flat fee (credited in some reports to be US$5,000) as payment to have the song sampled by Tone Lōc.

Alex Van Halen has said that he had heard partially "Wild Thing" over the radio and didn't realize his song had been sampled until he recognized his (by now famous) tom-tom break at least a few times.

[5] The music video for "Wild Thing Remix" shows Peaches and Tone Lōc performing live at Avalon during the celebration of the 20th anniversary of Delicious Vinyl.

"Wild Thing" was used in the 1989 film Uncle Buck (starring John Candy) during the scene when the titular character goes to the school of his nephew and niece to talk to the principal.

In Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle (2003), the song is used to soundtrack the scene in which Cameron Diaz's character Natalie rides a mechanical bull.

In Taxi (2004), Gisele Bündchen's character Vanessa is introduced by the song walking out of a building with her female henchmen as they prepare for another bank robbery.