The tracks had been worked on for four months, and the intention was to put "What the World Is Waiting For" as the A side; however, when Roddy Mckenna, Silvertone's A&R man, heard "Fools Gold" he urged the band to use that as the A-side.

[14] The lyrics reference Nancy Sinatra's "These Boots Are Made for Walkin'" and Marquis de Sade.

According to Brown, the song's verses were inspired by John Huston's 1948 film adaptation of The Treasure of the Sierra Madre and tells about "three geezers who are skint and they put their money together to get equipment to go looking for gold, then they all betray each other...".

It was promoted with a music video, showing the Stone Roses performing outdoors and walking across the volcanic landscape of Lanzarote, Canary Islands.

The band's appearance on the same November Top of the Pops as the Happy Mondays, who performed "Hallelujah" from the Madchester Rave On EP,[17] is regarded as a "cultural high-water mark", exposing the emerging Madchester scene to a wider audience, and popularizing a new dance-oriented music genre, baggy.