[6] Garbage began writing their second album, which would go under the working title of Sad Alcoholic Clowns, in March 1997 in the band's label-head Jerry Moss's Friday Harbor, Washington, vacation house.

Garbage employed touring bassist Daniel Shulman to perform electric bass on "Special", which he performed using a Fender Precision Bass run through an Ampeg SVT and then treated with "severe" equalization to achieve a Paul McCartney-esque Höfner sound to the part.

[10] After the initial riff, at the beginning of each verse line, the pronounced word "I" was sung as a sample from the Beatles' "All I've Got to Do" song.

Manson: "Ultimately it's about those feelings of betrayal you have for people when you set your sights too high and expect too much and how that can lead to disappointment in the end.

"[12] Garbage debuted "Special" live on May 15, 1998, at a concert at Ryan's Ballroom in Combined Locks, Wisconsin, which was the first date of the Version 2.0 World Tour.

[18] Unlike Garbage's previous single, "I Think I'm Paranoid", the release of "Special" throughout Europe occurred when Garbage were not performing locally, the band having launched the three-month-long North American fall leg of their Version 2.0 World Tour in Denver, Colorado on September 15.

[21] As the tour reached Canada, Garbage performed an extended set of tracks, including "Special" for a MusiquePlus televised performance filmed in Montreal on November 14, before returning to the US to wrap up the run of headline dates on November 28 in Green Bay, Wisconsin.

[26] On January 26, "Special" was declared "#1 Most Added" track at Top 40 radio with 53 adds, beating out Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay".

[27][28] Garbage returned from a sold-out European arena tour (where during a gap in dates they performed both "Special" and "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" acoustically on French television show Nulle Part Ailleurs) to spend two months supporting Alanis Morissette on her North American Junkie Tour from February 16 in Cincinnati, Ohio.

On March 20, during a break in the Junkie Tour, Garbage performed both "Special" and "When I Grow Up" as that week's musical guests on entertainment show Saturday Night Live.

[39] In the year 3030, Queen Astarte has taken to the skies to defend her once peaceful homeland from the evil lords of Garbania who seek to rule the universe.

Before production of the video commenced, Shadforth fashioned four study models of the fighter planes to enable her to plan in advance the shots and edits she needed to tell the storyline.

The planes were designed by graphic artists who had worked on visual effects for Lost in Space and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

Each band member was given a personalized plane design, emblazoned with imagery inspired by manga and sci-fi art; while each filmed their parts in a cabin set built upon a gimbal to give realism to the shots.

[41] Stylist William Baker, who worked on the video, said, "Dawn wanted to present Shirley Manson as a space-age fighter pilot, with shots showing her sexily manipulating the controls of her craft."

[46] The "Special" video also won a "silver" Design and Art Direction award for Best Direction in Pop Promo Video and was nominated for a CAD (Creative and Design) Award for Best Special Effects (to Paul Simpson, Stuart Gordon, and Sean Broughton).