Release History 
10th June 2002

Written by
Pink, Dallas Austin

Album
Missundaztood

Peak Positions 
Austria – 2
France – 29
Germany – 2
Ireland – 2
Netherlands – 6
New Zealand – 2
Sweden – 5
UK – 1
US – 8 

Just like a Pill was written by Pink and Dallas Austin and produced by the latter for the Pink’s second studio album, Missundaztood. The lyrics of the song deal with getting out of painful relationships, with a sub-theme about drug abuse.

The song was released worldwide as the third single from Missundaztood in June 2002 and was a commercial success, peaking at number eight on the Billboard Hot 100 in the United States. It also performed well internationally, becoming her second number-one single in the United Kingdom and reaching the top 10 in, amongst other countries, Ireland, the Netherlands and Sweden.

The song was generally well received by contemporary music critics. NME called it “the third best track off her killer last album”. Drowned In Sound’s Robert Luckett commented that it is “a fascinating record…this is a record with a edge, a kind of pot boiling over at any moment, ready to go off at any time vibe.” He also wrote “it obeys the pop industry’s well-dusted rules for a hit.” Stylus Magazine’s Todd Burns, in his review of the album, compared Just like a Pill to the other singles from the album, Don’t Let Me Get Me and Get the Party Started, writing “The guitars… sound much more integrated into the work and the overall song works far better.”

Music video

The video for Just like a Pill was directed by Francis Lawrence for LaFace Records. The video is considerably different from Pink’s previous videos. Get the Party Started and Don’t Let Me Get Me were lighter in nature than the dark atmosphere which is reflected in the video for Just like a Pill, an example of which is the fact that Pink can be seen throughout the whole video wearing black outfits with naked arms and legs and wearing black hair. Commenting on the different style of video, Pink said: “This one’s very dark and artsy, and I have black hair, which is very fun. I loved it. It’s another part that I haven’t concentrated on before.”

In the first scene, Pink lies on the floor. In the chorus she sings in front of her band. She is also featured in another scene with white rabbits around her in a room, and in another scene, she is seen with an elephant. There are also scenes with Pink singing in front of and amongst various people. In the latter half of the video, she runs in a hall whilst lip-synching the song, before disappearing into a bright doorway atop a staircase at the conclusion of the video.

After the elephant scene Pink decided to stop using animals for her videos. In an interview, she explained: “This poor elephant…a huge elephant, it’s so cute, and I could see how painful it was for it to get down on its hands and knees, … I didn’t like it. I won’t do that again. […] No more animals.”