According to "franzferdinand.net," bassist Bob Hardy was getting a bit worried about calling his mother back home, so the band added the backwards lyrics in as an homage.

The disc was withdrawn within a day of release, to be replaced by the end of the week by a two-track version, omitting "Tell Her Tonight".

[6][7] The music video for "Michael" features the band members playing at an underground dance club.

The song was recorded alternatively in May 2004 in Hamburg, Germany, as a duet, and it was originally intended for release as a single.

Catriona Shaw of the band Queen of Japan provided the female vocals of this version of the track.

In the end the band felt that the homoerotic undertones of the song became too diluted, so decided not to use it for the release of the track as a single and stuck with the original album version.