Early in 1996, Garbage's manager Shannon O'Shea pitched "#1 Crush" to
20th Century Fox for inclusion on the
Romeo + Juliet film. The song was received enthusiastically by Fox; however, the band's label Almo Sounds were against it as the soundtrack would be released on another label,
Capitol. After months of negotiation, Almo finally agreed. By this time, Garbage had two big hits in the US ("
Only Happy When It Rains" and "
Stupid Girl") and had broken through into the mainstream. Capitol planned to release the Garbage track first and then follow it up with another artist's song from the film's soundtrack album. Almo were concerned that "#1 Crush" was competing with Garbage's last single releases from their debut album: "
Supervixen" had just been released to alternative radio and "
Milk" to adult radio formats. O'Shea had already given a couple of radio stations early copies of the track on hastily burned
CDRs. "#1 Crush" quickly got added to 22 station playlists, even though "Supervixen" was officially the current Garbage single and still increasing in airplay. The following week, "#1 Crush" was the Most Added track at alternative radio, eclipsing "Supervixen" by adding a further 38 stations, while "Supervixen" gained none. The
Romeo + Juliet OST debuted at #44 on the
Billboard 200. "#1 Crush" debuted at #17 on the
Modern Rock Tracks chart and #49 on the
Hot 100 Airplay chart; "Supervixen" quickly lost traction as "#1 Crush" soared ahead, gaining more station adds and almost tripling its weekly play total. At this time, Almo was still refusing to support the single and were now focused on servicing "Milk". By December, the soundtrack album had risen to #12;
Billboard declared that "#1 Crush" has become "the driving force behind the [
Romeo + Juliet OST]" Due to the song's success, Garbage considered filming a music video for it at the end of their touring commitments. Almo reluctantly agreed to support "#1 Crush" after
Geffen executives put pressure on the label. By the end of its chart-run, "#1 Crush" had spent a total of 16 weeks on the Hot 100 Airplay chart and twenty-two on the Modern Rock chart. Erikson later recalled: "Turns out we didn't even need a video." In April, Mushroom serviced "#1 Crush" to European radio, where it placed on
Music & Media's Most Added list, and re-released the debut album bundled with a bonus "#1 Crush" CD single. In 2007, the remix of "#1 Crush" was remastered for Garbage's greatest hits album,
Absolute Garbage, and
Romeo + Juliet: Music from the Motion Picture (10th Anniversary Edition). In 2012, it was included in the band's second greatest hits album,
The Absolute Collection, released in Oceania. In 2015, an early demo mix of "#1 Crush" was included as a previously unreleased bonus track on
Garbage (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe Edition), along with new remasters of the original version and the remix. That year,
The Absolute Collection was
remastered for iTunes, where the "#1 Crush" remix was replaced with the original version. In 2022, the remix was remastered again and included in the band's third greatest hits album
Anthology. ==Critical reception and awards==