 "The Obvious Child" performed well on singles charts in several territories worldwide.In the United States, the song reached a peak of number 92 on the "Billboard" Hot 100 on January 5, 1991; it spent five weeks on the chart as a whole.It performed better on the magazine's Mainstream Rock Tracks chart, where it placed at number 21 on November 10, 1990, and on the Modern Rock Tracks chart, where it reached a peak of number 24 a week earlier on November 3.