The track was developed in 1984 after Heard felt his creative input was not being incorporated into the rock music cover bands he had been drumming in.

This led to Heard buying a Roland Jupiter-6 and developing two tracks in one night: "Washing Machine" and "Mystery of Love" which he recorded to via tape cassettes.

This version was released in 1986 on DJ International Records and became a top ten hit on the Hot Dance/Disco 12 Inch Singles chart in 1986.

[1] Heard initially was interested in pursuing a career as either a teacher, a lawyer, or an architect but moved on to playing drums in local groups.

[1] On the first night of purchasing the synthesizer in 1984, Heard created "Mystery of Love" and "Washing Machine", which he described as "my first drafts ever.

[5][6] Heard stated that the reception of "Mystery of Love" was so great that Ron Hardy and Frankie Knuckles were claiming that they had made the song.

Heard joked that he had "kind of foil everything for both of them, when people who knew me saying this was the guy who made the "Mystery of Love" track.

"[4] Jon Savage commented on the song's initial reception in the United Kingdom, stating that the track at first "seemed wrong" with its slower tempo, noting the audiences expectations for the "cranked up nature of the Go-Go scene or new-breed rappers like Schoolly D. It wasn't a brash assertion of ego or a frantic call to the dancefloor, more an ecstatic (in the old sense) vision couched in a radical, fluid sound world.

"[6] Savage continued that it took a little while for the song to become part of what would later be known as house music, specifically noting that after Farley "Jackmaster" Funk's record with Darryl Pandy "Love Can't Turn Around" entered the top ten in the United Kingdom, London Records released the compilation The House Sound of Chicago in October 1986 which included the Fingers Inc. version of "Mystery of Love" along with Daryl Pandy's hit.