Inspired by their move to West Orange, New Jersey, and named for a street there, Goffin and King wrote the song about their dissatisfaction with life in the suburbs.

[3] The Monkees' version differs somewhat from Goffin and King's demo, and their recording features a well-known guitar intro played by Michael Nesmith and a heavily reverberated fade-out.

"[8][9] In the book SuburbiaNation, Robert Beuka described the lyrics as "a wry commentary on the materialistic and anesthetized sensibilities of the adult generation in suburbia.

"[17] For the song's ending, Douglas and engineer Hank Cicalo "[kept] pushing everything up," increasingly adding reverberation and echo until the sound became unrecognizable.

A different stereo mix, more closely replicating the single version, appeared on the 1991 Monkees box set Listen to the Band.

On the Pisces album, the song is introduced by Tork's brief spoken-word interlude "Peter Percival Patterson's Pet Pig Porky."

In February 1986, MTV broadcast a marathon of episodes of The Monkees titled Pleasant Valley Sunday, which sparked a new wave of interest in the band.

Dolenz, Tork, and Jones, already on tour at the time, quickly transitioned from playing in small venues to performing in stadiums in the weeks that followed.