Prefab Sprout were signed to Kitchenware Records after label boss Keith Armstrong heard their first single, the self-released "Lions in My Own Garden (Exit Someone)" (1982), playing in the Newcastle branch of HMV he managed.

The first known use of the phrase in print is in the December 1773 edition of the Monthly Review: "They (the Moravians and Methodists) have adopted the music of some of our finest songs... ...and they have given good reasons for so doing: for, as Whitefield said, 'Why should the devil have all the best tunes?'".

[3] Hill used the expression in reference to Charles Wesley's habit of setting his hymns to popular secular tunes.

[10] "The Devil Has All the Best Tunes" received critical acclaim, with "Strikkers" of Record Mirror describing it as "quite simply a classic".

[9] As of 2022, neither side of the single has been released on CD, making "The Devil Has All the Best Tunes" Prefab Sprout's only A-side unavailable on this format.