[3] "Wishing Well" was certified "Gold", indicating sales of 500,000, by the Recording Industry Association of America in October 1991.

[4] Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 paired with D'Arby in production of the song, which was released on CBS Records.

[7] Ben Greenman of The New Yorker credits "Wishing Well", along with other D'Arby songs, with "[bringing] soul music into the eighties".

[8] Writing about D'Arby for AllMusic, Stephen Thomas Erlewine called the song "sparse funk", and noted how "Wishing Well" was his first major hit in the United States.

[9] Kathi Whalen of The Washington Post credited the song's chart success to D'Arby's combination of "'60s soul and pop on top", and called "Wishing Well" "bouncy".