The song was written by lead singer James Reyne[1][2] Australian Crawl's producer David Briggs was the Little River Band's guitarist, and had helped them to a recording contract with EMI.

"People aren't used to hearing 'Dorseted', and it's not actually a word - it's from the Dorset Gardens - I'm trying to be as suburban as possible, and it rhymed with 'corseted'."

- James Reyne, 2003[5]The single was almost banned from radio play and some TV shows due to its explicit lyrics.

[6] Reyne makes observations about cocktail parties that his parents attended, including where one of his teachers was caught in the garden with someone else's wife.

[5] In an interview with Peter Thompson on the ABC Television program Talking Heads, broadcast on 31 May 2010, Reyne answered a question on what the song was about, "Well, really?