due to a performance by the group on the legendary British music series Top of the Pops a week prior to the song's peak position. Additionally, it was a top 10 hit also in Belgium, Ireland and Sweden, while peaking within the top 20 in the Netherlands, Switzerland and West Germany. Despite being number one on the US year-end for 1990, the song did not appear on the 1990s decade-end chart. It does, however, appear on Billboard's 60th anniversary "All-time chart" at number 228, ahead of many songs that do appear on the decade-end chart. Critical reception Alex Henderson from AllMusic felt that the song is not "remotely convincing." J.D. Considine from The Baltimore Sun complimented it as "a tough-but-tuneful paean to self-reliance" and "irresistibly catchy". Bill Coleman from Billboard described it as an "engaging and melodic pop confection". In 2020, Tony L. Smith from Cleveland.com wrote, "A decade or two ago, Wilson Phillips' inspirational anthem "Hold On" wasn't regarded as anything more than a cheesy (maybe the cheesiest) pop song from the Nineties. But opinions change. For a generation big on nostalgia, it gets no bigger than "Hold On", a song that has good times written all over it." The Daily Vault's Christopher Thelen stated in his review of Wilson Phillips, that it's the "defining moment" for the album, "setting the tone for what was to come as well as letting the listener know that all they have to do is sit back and enjoy the ride." A reviewer from Music & Media called the song "melodic, well crafted and extremely catchy", and "everything you would expect from a band madeup of daughters of rock stars." David Quantick from NME felt the single "is fine and rather thrashes everything else here [on the album]. However, since it was one of the songs here written by the cowboy-booted threesome, it bodes well for the future." Music video A music video was produced to promote the single, directed by English film, documentary and music video director Julien Temple. It begins with aerial shots of a mountain side. Wilson Phillips sings as they sit on the side of the mountain. Later, they sing as they sit together on the beach by the ocean. The video was later published on the group's official YouTube channel in March 2009. It has amassed more than 76 million views as of September 2022. Track listings US