and cassette, and Geffen began heavily promoting the single. Bong Load, having retained the rights to release Beck's songs on vinyl due to the nature of Beck's contract with DGC, re-pressed the 12-inch single in larger quantities than before. "Loser" quickly ascended the charts in the US, reaching a peak of number ten on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart and topping the Modern Rock Tracks chart. It was certified gold by the RIAA and sold 600,000 copies domestically. The song also charted in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and throughout Europe. "Loser"'s worldwide success shot Beck into a position of attention, and the media dubbed him the center of the new so-called "slacker" movement. Beck refuted this characterization of himself, saying, "Slacker my ass. I never had any slack. I was working a $4-an-hour job trying to stay alive. That slacker stuff is for people who have the time to be depressed about everything." Around the time of the song's release, Beck had been approached about including "Loser" on the soundtrack of the comedy film Dumb and Dumber, but he refused. He recalled the process, "I remember getting a phone call one day. My manager said, 'There's a film. They want to use 'Loser' as the theme song.' There was a long pause, and he said, 'The name of the film is Dumb And Dumber.' And I just remember: That sums up what the world thinks of me at this point. I tried to have fun with it, tried to not take it too serious. But at the same time, it was a little disheartening sometimes." Critical reception In his Consumer Guide, Robert Christgau gave the single CD a one-star honorable mention (), picked out two songs, "Fume" and "Alcohol", and stated that it's Beck's "greatest hit, an album demo, and two-for-three prime odds and ends". Pan-European magazine Music & Media wrote, "Despite its title, the odd combination of sitar and dobro-driven(!) alternative pop with dance rhythms, makes a winner out of this song." Michael Azerrad from Rolling Stone commented, "Enter 23-year-old Beck singing, "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me?" on "Loser", the ultracatchy opening track on this fascinating debut. Just to underline the point, a sampled George Bush whines, "I'm a driver. I'm a winner"." Another editor, Paul Evans, felt it "was an awesome, omnipresent single, its trickle-of-consciousness lyrics, ragged acoustic six-string and noise