According to Mark Wirtz, the song comes from a dream he had about an ageing door-to-door grocer named Jack in a small, turn-of-the-20th-century village, who was mocked by the children as he was taken for granted by the town folk.

The recording used the voices of children from the Corona Academy, with Keith West of the band Tomorrow, with whom Wirtz was also working, as lead vocalist, and his bandmate Steve Howe on guitar.

He continued to work on the project, which he intended to be "a kaleidoscope of stories, a bouquet of allegorical, tragiccomic tales about a variety of characters and their fate, all related to each other by the common thread of living in the same imaginary turn-of the-century village.

Each character distinguished him/herself by rebelliously pursuing a dream or lifestyle against all odds and in defiance of conformity, their ageless celebration of youth and individuality embodying the very spirit of Rock’n’Roll.

Nevertheless, even in its incomplete form and ultimate failure, Teenage Opera entered the history books as a bright torch and shining star, having set a precedent and broken down barriers to pave the way for others to succeed where I had failed.