Released in May 1996 by Blue Gorilla and Mercury as the second single from her debut album, Relish (1995), it was written by Osborne as well as its producer Rick Chertoff and the Hooters members Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman.

Written about a sex worker she witnessed openly engaging in drug-dealing in her Manhattan neighbourhood,[1][2] Osborne said that she penned the lyrics to "St. Teresa" while under hypnosis, in a desperate attempt to overcome writer's block.

[2][6] In it, she plays a hotel maid discovering bizarre and supernatural occurrences while cleaning, including goldfish living in a toilet and bathtub, as well as a levitating woman.

It also earned a nomination for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance at the 38th Annual Grammy Awards, but ultimately lost to Alanis Morissette's hugely successful "You Oughta Know.

"[7] Kevin Courtney from the Irish Times wrote: "In her follow up 'St Teresa' (Mercury), Joan paints a gritty picture of a drug-addicted prostitute for whom canonisation would seem a remote possibility.