[6] The banjo was played through tape delay so that it sounds like a balalaika, while the tempo was similarly influenced by Middle Eastern and Greek music, which, combined with Bobby Elliott's vehement cymbal crashes, results in what critic Richie Unterberger describes as one of the most offbeat rock songs of 1966.

[7] The song – like most others by the group – features three-part vocal harmony between Allan Clarke, Hicks, and Graham Nash.

It was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, England, and was produced by Ron Richards.

Nash has said in various interviews that this song was inspired by the time American record executive and impresario Morris Levy took him and the rest of the band to a strip club.

Cash Box said that it is a "wild tongue-in-cheeker [that] is the tale of a belly dancer couched in a middle eastern mode, with loads of appeal".