The song hit number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on October 17, 1987.

The song was their second number-one single, after "Head to Toe" earlier in the year.

[3] Full Force member Lou George describes "Lost in Emotion" as "a combination" of two Mary Wells' hits: "Two Lovers" and "You Beat Me to the Punch", an idea which occurred to George as the result of his playing Wells' Greatest Hits album on which "Two Lovers" and "You Beat Me to the Punch" were sequential tracks.

George - "We didn't steal the riffs: all we did was get the flavoring...We [used] a xylophone and some bells because back in the Motown days they always used those simple instruments.

With the exception of the group dance routine, the video was filmed in a way that gave it an unrehearsed feel, meant to match the carnival setting.