The song was written by Stephen Duffy and Steven Page.

"Jane" reached number three on Canada's RPM Top Singles chart, topped the RPM Adult Contemporary chart for four weeks, and ended 1994 as the country's 17th best-selling single.

Steven Page recalls that co-writer Stephen Duffy saw the intersection on a map and remarked that it sounded like the most beautiful intersection in the world; Page "didn't wanna break his heart to tell him it wasn't."

Page was also noted to have said, "the next song I'm gonna write is gonna be called Markham Ellesmere", the major suburban intersection of Markham Road and Ellesmere Road, which is close to where Page grew up in the Scarborough section of Toronto.

Page admits that the line "No Juliana next to my Evan" "dates [the song] a bit, [but] it still sounds pretty to me today.