Songfacts®:

• This wistful track was released as the third single from Girls Aloud singer Nicola Roberts' debut solo album Cinderella's Eyes. It was originally earmarked to be the lead single until a last minute decision was made to go with "Beat Of My Drum" instead. The song was released on January 8, 2012.
• Roberts penned the song with Dimitri Tikovoi and Maya von Doll with whom she also worked with on "Beat Of My Drum." Lyrically, it is about an up and down relationship and Roberts explained to Digital Spy: "I think 'Yo-Yo' is about love not always being rosy. Sometimes people are really hurting in love and it's a really powerful thing - it can either make your heart or break your heart. So many people go through that and so they'll be able to relate to the song and that's why I decided to write about it."
• We think of the yo-yo as a toy, but during the sixteenth century in the Philippine Islands they were used as a weapon. These yo-yos weighed 4 pounds and had a 20-foot cord. They were first introduced to the west in 1866 by James L. Haven and Charles Hettrick of Cincinnati but remained in relative obscurity until 1928 when a Filipino American named Pedro Flores opened the Yo-yo Manufacturing Company in Santa Barbara, California. There was a also a female rapper named Yo-Yo (Yolanda Whitaker) who was a protégéof Ice Cube and cracked the Top-40 in 1991 with her song "You Can't Play With My Yo-Yo," which peaked at #36.