This song was released as the lead single from Octahedron in North America, whilst in the rest of the world "Cotopaxi" was selected as the first release. It was shortened from its album time frame of 7:20 to a radio-ready 4:50.
The song was initially premiered as part of the stripped-down acoustic set at the band's 2007 New Year's Eve show:
Unusually for Mars Volta, whose lyrics generally have a dark, mystical subject matter, this is close to being a straight-up love song. Vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala told Drowned In Sound that Octahedron is a lighter, more commercial record than they've done before. He explained: "We wanted to make the opposite of all the records we've done. All along we've threatened people that we'd make a pop record, and now we have." He added that this song was meant to end up on Bedlam, "but I guess it didn't fit. What we wanted to make was an acoustic album. So this is our version of that, but obviously not sticking to the rules. It's always good to get rid of one audience to gain another. The old audience always knows what to expect. And I'm sure whatever audience comes from this album, we'll disappoint them with the next record."
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