Written by Barry Upton and Steve Crosby and produced by Karl Twigg, Mark Topham and Pete Waterman, the song blends techno-pop and country pop styles.

Its accompanying music video was shot on a beach and features the group driving quad bikes and dancing in a bar.

Out of the thousands who applied, Lee Latchford-Evans, Lisa Scott-Lee, Faye Tozer, Claire Richards and Ian "H" Watkins successfully secured a place in the band.

[3] Al Unsworth and Bradlee Spreadborough served as the assistant engineers and it was mastered at Transfermation Studios in London, England.

In his review of Gold: Greatest Hits, he wrote "Steps were only signed for one single – with good reason, for '5,6,7,8' was shit of the very highest order.

"[14] Similarly, Digital Spy writer Robert Copsey wrote that retrospectively, the track was a "bizarre" choice of lead single in his review of The Ultimate Collection in 2011.

[15] In a review of Steps' best-selling songs for the Official Charts Company in March 2017, Copsey noted how "5,6,7,8" distinctly differs from the rest of their discography in terms of its techno-pop genre, line dancing lyrics and lack of lead vocals solely from Claire Richards.

[16] Set primarily on a beach in Marbella, Spain, the accompanying music video for "5,6,7,8", filmed on 9 September 1997 and directed by Phil Griffin,[23] opens with Latchford-Evans and Watkins riding quad bikes along the beach while Scott-Lee, Tozer and Richards drive a car on the road next to them, with close-ups of each of the female singers performing the chorus outside bathroom stalls.

It is followed by a repetition of the chorus during which all of the members perform the song's associated line dancing routine, which was very popular at the time of its release,[2] to the music outside a bar on the beach, attracting a crowd of beachgoers.