Cole wrote and demoed the song during a weekend in 1983, in his room at Glasgow Golf Club, where his parents worked and lived.

He demoed the track using a Portastudio, a [Yamaha] DX7 and a drum machine, all of which the band had recently purchased after securing a publishing deal.

It's just like 'Michelle, ma belle', wee verses that I thought sound good – the literal meaning of the words didn't have a lot to do with it.

I was totally drunk on [Bob] Dylan at the time I wrote that song and all the imagery is deliberately Dylanesque.

[7] Jerry Smith of Music Week considered the band to have the "same pop spirit that produced Aztec Camera and Orange Juice".