After Pixies finished touring for their second album, Doolittle (1989), in January 1990, band members Black Francis, Joey Santiago, and David Lovering moved from Boston to Los Angeles.

Bassist Kim Deal stayed in the UK to record the Breeders' first album in January with producer Steve Albini, although she ultimately decided to travel out to Los Angeles with the rest of the group.

Norton decided to work on overdubs in another studio for a few days until the problem was corrected, but when he returned to Cherokee, he found that any time something was plugged into a guitar amplifier it would generate "this incredible hum".

[9] The song was recorded with producer Gil Norton, who was specially flown in for the one-song session, at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin, after their June 19 concert there.

Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab released a version in 2008 that was remastered from the original analog master tapes.

In his September 1990 review of Bossanova, Q's Mat Snow said that "the Pixies are masters of the calculated incongruity," and commented that "they give other rockers an object lesson in the first principles of how it should be done.

"[19] Terry Staunton of NME noted that the album's production "leans towards the harsh garage grunge of Surfer Rosa, although the songs retain the strong melodies of Doolittle," and said that "Bossanova is the composite Pixies LP.