Songfacts®:

• "This is a song about a pretty Irish girl," explains Gin Blossom's guitarist Jesse Valenzuela, who wrote the song with lead singer Robin Wilson. "I think the boy is crazy about the girl in the song, and they just want to hook up, don't they?" When asked if Christine is anybody he knows, Jesse laughs, "I've had too many Christines." This song is sort of a conglomeration of those girls, and even his wife is Irish, he says. "I tend to like Irish girls."
• After years of performing in Arizona bars, Gin Blossoms got a deal with A&M Records and released their first album on the label in 1992. It took over a year to catch on, but when it did, the album emitted a steady stream of hits in slow succession. Those songs were still getting airplay in 1994, so instead of putting out another album, they put four songs, including "Christine Irene," on an EP called Shut Up and Smoke that was distributed to radio stations.