Sex Type Thing

"Sex Type Thing"
"Sex Type Thing"
	One of several covers used in the UK
Single by Stone Temple Pilots
from the album Core
B-side	"Piece of Pie"; "Wicked Garden" (live); "Sin" (live);
Released	March 15, 1993
Recorded	May 1992
Genre	Grunge
Length	3:38
Label	Atlantic
Composer(s)	Dean DeLeo; Eric Kretz;
Lyricist(s)	Scott Weiland
Producer(s)	Brendan O'Brien
Stone Temple Pilots singles chronology
Audio sample
	"Sex Type Thing" file; help;
Music video
	"Sex Type Thing" on YouTube

"Sex Type Thing" is the debut single of American rock band Stone Temple Pilots, released from their debut studio album, Core, in March 1993. "Sex Type Thing" also appears on the greatest hits compilation album Thank You. The song spawned a music video which received moderate rotation on MTV (at the height of the early 1990s grunge music scene). The single peaked at number 23 on the US Album Rock Tracks chart.

Music video

During the grunge explosion of the 1990s, the music video for "Sex Type Thing" is usually denoted as the single factor that drove Stone Temple Pilots into the scene. The video was in medium-heavy rotation on MTV during the time, and helped make STP a contender in the grunge era. The video itself hosts a very dark motif, showing the band performing in a dungeon chamber, with singer Scott Weiland having bleached his hair blond, interspersed between clips of a dancer swinging on a chain and a woman in a prom dress surrounded by a ring of fire who then is being menaced before she rips her clothes off. Footage of a wild man dancing plays throughout. This video is rather distinctive because it is the first to showcase Scott Weiland's trademark "dance".^[3] The set was used again for Sunny Day Real Estate's "In Circles" music video in 1994.^[4]

Controversy

Upon the success of "Sex Type Thing", controversies regarding the song's lyrics emerged while STP was on tour opening for Megadeth. Weiland found himself in the position of defending "Sex Type Thing" to individuals who took the first-person approach he used in the song literally. In a 1993 interview with Rolling Stone, Weiland expressed his frustration with the song's reception by saying "It was, 'All right, the "Cop Killer" controversy's dead, let's try to find something else'...I never thought that people would ever seriously think that I was an advocate of date rape."^[5]

Track listings

All live tracks were recorded at the Reading Festival 1993.

CD single 1

"Sex Type Thing" – 3:38
"Piece of Pie" – 5:28
"Wicked Garden" (live) – 4:26
"Sin" (live) – 7:52

CD single 2

"Sex Type Thing" – 3:38
"Piece of Pie" – 5:28
"Dead and Bloated" (live) – 4:53
"Sex Type Thing" (live) – 4:01

European CD Single

"Sex Type Thing - 3:38
"Wicked Garden - 4:04
"Plush (Acoustic)" - 3:52

Charts

Chart (1993)	Peak position
UK Singles (OCC)^[6]	60
US Mainstream Rock (Billboard)^[7]	23

Release history

Region	Date	Format(s)	Label(s)	Ref.
United States	January 1993	Radio	Atlantic
United Kingdom	March 15, 1993	12-inch vinyl CD		^[8]
United Kingdom (re-release)	November 15, 1993	12-inch vinyl CD cassette		^[9]

Appearances and covers

The song appeared in notable TV shows and video games including Gran Turismo 2. Charmed, Rock Band 3, Guitar Hero: Aerosmith.
The song has been covered live by Velvet Revolver, a supergroup in which Weiland fronted from 2003 to 2008.
Evanescence, Fuel, Papa Roach and Theory of a Deadman have also covered the song live.
"Weird Al" Yankovic covered part of "Sex Type Thing" in his song "The Alternative Polka" off the album Bad Hair Day.
An electronic reworking of the song appeared in the episode "Let it Bleed" of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.^[10]
The song was released as downloadable content on June 1, 2010, as part of Stone Temple Pilots Track Pack with "Plush" and "Between the Lines" for Guitar Hero 5.^[11]
"Into Sandy's City", a MIDI track from Doom II: Hell on Earth, is based on Sex Type Thing.
Psychosexual/Psycho Synner covered this song off the covers álbum Songs to Stalk You By.