[1] The four writers were nominated for the Ivor Novello Award for excellence in songwriting,[2] and Billboard ranked the track number 96 on their list of the "100 Greatest Girl Group Songs of All Time".

"Whole Again" was written and produced by Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark members and Atomic Kitten founders Andy McCluskey and Stuart Kershaw.

[4] A mid-tempo ballad that combines a strolling beat and one-note string crescendos,[5] it initially featured all lines spoken by Kerry Katona with only the chorus sung by Liz McClarnon and Natasha Hamilton.

[6] Padley later described the process as "quite difficult, because the chorus of the song was so hooky that the verse had to lead up to it but not overshadow it, which is why it ended up sounding as low as it does.

We very carefully worked out what the vocal range of the Kittens was, because the last thing we wanted was to write a melody that was fantastic but that they wouldn't be able to sing.

[6] A hasty affair due to the band's hectic schedule at that time, much of the vocals were recorded within 30 minutes, with McClarnon and Hamilton each singing the whole song twice only.

[6] As well as recording the new vocals, Godfrey and Padley also took over the job of producing "Whole Again", although they were careful to preserve the features of McCluskey and Kershaw's original version, including Katona's spoken middle-8 section.

[6] While the duo kept much of the "underwater organ sound" from the original session, they were forced to replay and retune other elements and added a few additional percussion and string loops from the sample albums Vinylistics 3 and Advanced Orchestra to the track.

An alternate take of Frost's vocals was issued as a bonus track on international versions of the group's second album, Feels So Good.

[25][26][27][28][29][30] The music video for "Whole Again" was filmed on a very small budget due to the commercial failure of previous single "Follow Me".

It features the Kittens singing in front of a plain white background—similar to the video for the Sugababes' debut single, "Overload".

[31] As a result of the single's huge success in many international markets, a second music video was filmed for the U.S. release with a much larger budget.

The video ends with the camera zooming out on the field making the crowd take on the shape of Atomic Kitten's logo.

[72][74] On 6 July 2021, the day before England's semi-final against Denmark, the group released an official full-length version of the adapted song called "Southgate You're the One (Football's Coming Home Again)" via Columbia Records UK.