True - Single Edit

The lyrics for this song were inspired by a crush Spandau Ballet's Gary Kemp had on Altered Images singer and Gregory's Girl star Clare Grogan. "I was infatuated with Clare Grogan," he told The Guardian. "I met her on Top of the Pops and, at one point, traveled up to Scotland to have tea with her and her mum and dad. Although my feelings were unrequited and the relationship was platonic, it was enough to trigger a song."

Some phrases in the lyrics were adapted from the novel Lolita, a copy of which Clare Grogan had given Gary Kemp. "The lyrics are full of coded messages to Clare," Kemp told The Guardian. "I'm still berated for the line 'Take your seaside arms' but it's straight out of Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov, which she had given me as a present – although in the book, it's 'seaside limbs. The line 'With a thrill in my head and a pill on my tongue' is also a bastardisation of Nabokov."

One of the song's producers, Tony Swain, recalls in 1000 UK #1 Hits by Jon Kutner and Spencer Leigh, "We made the True album in the Bahamas and I am sure that a lot of that place got into the album. True was not a complicated song but it has really got something. There is something timeless about it: it has had over 2 million radio plays in America and it has been used in the wedding scenes for lots of films. It's very nice to have made a record that has lasted that long and I still feel good about it."