It was released on Virgin Records as the third single from Michael's third studio album, Older (1996), and depicts the worry of a lover whose partner is sexually promiscuous during the period when AIDS was newly discovered and rampant in the West.

Larry Flick from Billboard praised the Forthright remix of "Spinning the Wheel" as a "hard-driving dance record", noting that the "sleek and jazzy interlude" from the Older album had been reconstructed "with a textured house music sound."

He also complimented Michael for breaking "interesting new ground", and that the sophistication of the original recording "remains fully intact, though Forthright darkens the groove to complimentary effect".

[3] Sarah Davis from Dotmusic named it the album's "upbeat highlight", adding that it finds Michael "sending out warning signs to an errant partner": Five o'clock in the morning, you ain't home ...

[6] Paul Lester from Melody Maker said songs like "Spinning the Wheel" "are snazzily produced late-night smoochathons that'll provide horny shop assistants and bank clerks with shag material for months.