Produced by Frank Wilson and written by Kathy Wakefield and Leonard Caston, "Nathan Jones" was one of eight top-40 entries the Supremes recorded after its original frontwoman, Diana Ross, left the group for a solo career.

The song centers around a woman's longing for her former lover, a man named Nathan Jones, who left her nearly a year ago "to ease [his] mind."

"Nathan Jones" is an unusual entry among the Supremes' singles repertoire for several reasons: all three members of the group (Jean Terrell, Mary Wilson, and Cindy Birdsong) sing the song's lead vocal in unison.

In addition, Wilson had his engineer, Cal Harris, use what can (now) be considered classic studio sensibilities to take The Funk Brothers' backing tracks for "Nathan Jones" and give them a phase shifting sound at various points during the song.

After Siobhan Fahey was replaced by Jacquie O'Sullivan, Bananarama re-recorded the song (with completely new vocal and instrumental arrangements), dubbed the Psycho Mix.

[18] The music video, directed by Andy Morahan, featured the girls performing the song with vogue-style choreography with four male dancers dressed in British-style suits, hats, and umbrellas.

The group performed the song on several popular shows of the day, including Top of the Pops, The Great Big British Pop Machine, at the 1988 Royal Variety Performance in the presence of the Queen Mother and, famously, on the Terry Wogan show, in which Keren is seen doing the first verse choreography during the second verse.