The song was written by band members Matty Healy, George Daniel, Adam Hann and Ross MacDonald alongside Guendoline Viray Rome Gomez and Hiroshi Sato.

Healy was inspired by the Backstreet Boys, producer Max Martin and rapper Kanye West, along with the melodic music of Brandy, Whitney Houston, SWV and TLC.

The song is produced in a retro 1990s style, containing a funk-influenced drum beat, reggae rhythms, brass instrumentation and influences of contemporary R&B, electropop, jazz, dub, ska and electronic music.

"Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" was deemed an album highlight by numerous contemporary music critics and later included in several year-end lists.

In April 2017, the 1975 announced Music For Cars, the follow-up record to their second studio album I Like It When You Sleep, for You Are So Beautiful yet So Unaware of It (2016), with it being set for release in 2018.

[4] The band began recording the second album Notes on a Conditional Form, prior to the release of A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships.

A rough version of a separate song, containing a sample of "Say Goodbye" (1985) from Japanese city pop artist Hiroshi sato, was originally written by No Rome–a friend and frequent collaborator of the 1975–who intended to release it for himself.

[1][11][12] Healy was also influenced by "rich melodic music" of Brandy, Whitney Houston, SWV and TLC, specifically the latter of the four's sophomore album CrazySexyCool (1994).

[9][13][18] The hazy, retro production is evocative of the late 1990s,[19] consisting of offbeat guitar upstrokes, a funk-influenced drum beat, pianos,[12] keyboards,[20] a rumbling beat, reggae rhythms, brass instrumentation, "squelchy" synths and influences of contemporary R&B,[13] electropop, jazz,[21] dub,[17] ska and electronic music.

[25] Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone compared the use of guitar-influenced R&B and 2000s pop music in "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" to the band's "Somebody Else" (2016) and "Sincerity Is Scary" (2018).

[19] It begins with a high-pitched soul sample of "Just My Imagination (Running Away with Me)" that is modified through a vocoder,[27] which Ben Boddez of Vancouver Weekly noted as reminiscent of West.

[29] The song then drops into a reggae-inspired tempo, with Healy singing: "Give yourself a new name / Change your voice on the train / Have a complain about your fame / Tell me that it's all a rigged game.

[31] Maggie McHale and Erica Garcia of Atwood Magazine felt "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" is the best non-single on the album, while their colleague Nina Schaarschmidt praised the band's "amazing ability to connect lyrics to genre blending melodies that make you feel what they are singing about".

[33] Cleveland Magazine declared "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" the 10th best song of 2020, with Troy Smith commending the mixture of the 1975's signature sound with a sonic evolution.

"[19] Mya Singleton of Yardbarker selected the song for inclusion in her year-end playlist, calling it a standout from Notes on a Conditional Form that "immediately draws listeners in with its smooth sample".

[26] Adrian Garro of Rock Cellar Magazine declared "Tonight (I Wish I Was Your Boy)" a highlight from the album, noting its underused potential as a single.

[37] Ali Shutler and Stephen Ackroyd of Dork praised the song's placement in the album's central run, saying that "it's arguable the band have never sounded better".

[49] Following the video's release, Derrick Rossignol of Uproxx said that the teddy bear "like many folks right now, spends his time seated in front of his computer".