[2] The song exemplifies "synth-pop's spaced-out loneliness" and yearning for imagined, absent lovers,[3] and is noted for its Wall of Sound-styled layer of synthesizer padding – a "multi-layered, hypnotic song", according to AllMusic.

[2] According to lead singer Mike Score, "Wishing" was based on a real person.

When recalling the experience with this person, he said, "It was the eve of the first trip we ever took to America, and I had met a girl.

We went out for the night, and I didn't want to forget her, so I said, 'We're going on tour and I'll be back.

'"[4] Unlike the band's 1982 hit "I Ran (So Far Away)", largely a United States and Australian hit, "Wishing" performed strongly in the band's home country, the United Kingdom, and reached the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart; in the US, it reached the top 30 on the Billboard Hot 100 in mid-1983.