This was only added to the album after David Balfe of Blur's record company complained that the album wasn't commercial enough, and he wanted them to record some hit singles. Damon Albarn wrote this at his parents' house in Colchester on Christmas Eve 1992.

In 1992 Blur did a series of concerts in the US which wasn't well received by both the band and the audience. Grunge was at it's peak at that time and they couldn't do anything with it. As a result they started to develop a very British-Centric style. As an example to this, the single's cover features two British World-War II planes. Also the video, directed by Julien Temple, features them in various famous London scenes, including the Thames in front of Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, Trafalgar Square, the Nelson columnand the famous London buses.

At the time of the release this was only a moderate success, it charted on #28 in the UK, but in no other country.But over time it gained much popularity, it was voted #15 of "50 Best London Songs" of Time Out magazine. It was part of Mojo's "The 50 Greatest British Tracks Ever" and Blur fans (on the appropriately named blurfans.com) voted it their 5th favorite single.

The lyric, "Says let's take a drive to Primrose Hill, it's windy there and the view's so nice" was immortalized by an unknown fan who wrote "and the view's so nice" on a road on top of the Hill. >>

In December 1992, Blur was at its lowest point following disappointing sales of their first album and a disastrous concert performance. They were heavily in debt and on the verge of being dropped by their label. Damon Albarn spent Christmas with his parents and celebrated Christmas eve by getting himself drunk. His father woke up on Christmas morning to hear his son tinkering on the piano. John Harris wrote in The Last Party: "Somewhere from behind a hangover, its lyrics wound the existentialist notion of nausea around a panoramic picture of London that managed to be both beautiful and unsettling; its melody, built around chords that betrayed an enviable compositional talent, fitted the picture to perfection."
Albarn named his song For Tomorrow. >>