In 2004, the "NME" ranked "About a Girl" second on their list of the "20 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever." The same year, "Q" ranked it second on their list of the "10 Greatest Nirvana Songs Ever." In 2015, it was placed at number eight on "Rolling Stone's" ranking of 102 Nirvana songs. It was ranked at number 112 on "Pitchfork's" 2015 list of "The 200 Best Songs of the 1980s," with Raymond Cummings calling it a "sharp, perceptive, well-constructed, and almost Beatles-esque" song "that demonstrated a potential beyond grunge's ghetto." In 2019, it was ranked eighth on "The Guardian's" list of "Nirvana's 20 greatest songs".