• It is the fourth track on the band's second studio album, Live Through This, released on April 12, 1994. Although not released as a single, "Asking for It" is one of the band's most notable songs as it charted a brief, four-week appearance on Billboard's Modern Rock Tracks in the United States in February 1995, peaking at number 36.
• The first and only known studio version of the song was recorded in October 1993 as part of the Live Through This sessions at Triclops Studios in Atlanta, Georgia. On October 18, halfway through the sessions, Love's husband, Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, joined the band in-studio and provided backing vocals for a number of songs, including "Asking for It". Cobain, however, was unfamiliar with the material, and was encouraged to "just sing off the top of his head". His vocals during the bridge are audible on the album version, albeit low in the mix. An alternate mix of the song, sourced from a radio broadcast of Hot Modern Rock Tracks in 1995, circulated amongst the general public in 1998 [Note: this is the version posted here] and features Cobain's prominent backing vocals, as well as an extended bridge and additional verses. This song is also known as one of the three released Hole recordings to feature Love's husband Kurt Cobain. Due to this song and the other two songs featuring Kurt, this is known for being a source for those who believe Cobain contributed largely to the album.
• There were rumours around the time of the album's release that Love was planning to release this version of "Asking for It" featuring Kurt as a single.
• Although thought to be written in 1992, the term "asking for it" was coined by Love as early as 1990 and appears in the lyrics to the band's 1991 single "Dicknail". The opening lines of the song were used by Love in a 1991 interview with British journalist Everett True, in response to one of his questions.
• "Asking for It" was written in drop D tuning by Eric Erlandson with the main guitar riff constructed from four chords (D5–C5–A5–G5) with the latter two chords being barre chords due to the alternate tuning. The song opens with a simple bass line based on Erlandson's chords. An acoustically-performed guitar bridge in the song resembles the Richard Hell and The Voidoids song "Time", which was later performed live by Hole during one of their 1995 tours in promotion for Live Through This.
• The lyrical content of "Asking for It" is mainly about rape, however, it also deals with issues of feminism; one of the central themes of Live Through This. The song was inspired by an incident that occurred on August 16, 1991 at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow, Scotland, where Love stage-dived and was molested by members of the audience.

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