Songfacts®:

• "Everybody's Problem" was a result of one of many shifts in direction in the early days of Pulp in an attempt to find commercial success. Having already moved from alternative in their early days to acoustic pop-ballads on their debut album It, this song was a result of producer Tony Perrin telling Jarvis Cocker that pop groups like Wham! were very popular at the time and to write songs accordingly.
  
  Cocker explained in a 1994 Record Collector interview: "Red Rhino put up the money for another single. That's where things got bad. Tony Perrin, in his infinite wisdom, decided that Wham! were a good group, and said, 'You could write commercial songs like Wham!, Jarvis.' 'Everybody's Problem' was the result. As soon as I'd written it, I'd realized I'd made a grave error. It's got a brass section. I refused to sing properly. What's on the single is a desultory guide vocal - I messed up all the words. 'Everybody's Problem' bombed out and the future was canceled due to a lack of interest!'
• If one good thing came out of the "Everybody's Problem" debacle, it's that Cocker's disillusionment with chasing commercial sounds for popularity led to him reassembling the band with a more noisey, alternative and experimental direction soon after, and not long after came members who would go on to feature in their most successful years: guitarist Russell Senior and keyboardist Candida Doyle. It was a close thing though - Cocker was close to dissolving the band altogether and going to university before a practice with Senior put him back on track.
• "Everybody's Problem/There Was..." was a largely self-financed double-A-side single, and the original single is now a highly prized collector's item. The songs themselves have been reissued several times, including on the 2013 compilation Scared To Get Happy: A Story of Indie Pop 1980-1989.