The song's chord structure was inspired by bassist Robert DeLeo's love of ragtime music, and its lyrics were loosely based on a newspaper article lead singer Scott Weiland had read about a girl who had been found dead after having been kidnapped in the early 1990s. Weiland had also said that the song's lyrics are a metaphor for a failed relationship.^[4]

The song was released in 1993 as Core's second single and became a major rock radio hit in the United States, peaking at number one on the Album Rock Tracks chart and number nine on the Modern Rock Tracks chart; on the former listing, it was the most successful song of 1993. The song was also one of the first alternative rock songs to reach the number-one spot on the Album Rock Tracks chart during the height of the alternative rock/grunge scene. "Plush" won in the category of "Best Hard Rock Performance" at the 1994 Grammy Awards. The music video also earned the band an MTV Video Music Award for Best New Artist in 1993. "Plush" remains one of the biggest rock hits of the 1990s, and it still receives airplay on radio stations.^{[citation needed]} The song also was voted number 12 on the Australian annual music poll Triple J Hottest 100 in 1993. According to Nielsen Music's year-end report for 2019, "Plush" was the fourth most-played song of the decade on mainstream rock radio with 133,000 spins. All of the songs in the top 10 were from the 1990s.^[5]

The award-winning music video, directed by Josh Taft, was released in 1993 and had heavy rotation on MTV. It combines a visual interpretation of the song's lyrics with footage of Weiland singing with the band as a lounge act in an empty bar. There are two different versions of this video, with minor differences. On the Thank You Bonus DVD, the last shot of the video features a woman looking at a mirror image of herself viewing her whole body while the mirror image drifts away. In another version, she is looking at a mirror image of her face, with water (possibly rain) dripping down the reflection of the mirror.^{[citation needed]}

Weiland and Stone Temple Pilots guitarist Dean DeLeo performed an impromptu acoustic version of "Plush" on the MTV show Headbangers Ball in 1992. The recording was originally only available on a CD single from the United Kingdom for their single, "Creep", the European CD single for "Sex Type Thing," and on the German promotional radio release "Plush (unplushed)", but it was not officially released anywhere else until it appeared on the band's 2003 "greatest hits" compilation, Thank You, alongside the original studio recording. While this acoustic rendition did not chart on any U.S. or international charts, it did get moderate airplay when the original version had heavy airplay on radio at the time. A rare first take of the same acoustic version on MTV's Headbangers Ball was also available, but it was only found as a B-side to the rare "Crackerman" single. It has the same length and processing as the original electric version, and also uses the last part of the original electric version.