Songfacts®:

• This is the first single from Scissor Sisters' fourth studio album Magic Hour. The track was premiered by BBC Radio 1 DJ Fearne Cotton on April 6, 2012 and went on sale May 13, 2012.
• Scottish electronic musician Calvin Harris produced the song. Frontman Jake Shears said: "I've known Calvin for quite a while, we met originally making some music with Kylie for the Aphrodite album. He's just a lovely guy, he's so wonderful."
• The album title refers to a term used by those in the movie industry to describe the shadow-free light that occurs before sunrise and after sunset. It was inspired by the moment when singer Jake Shears asked German dance producer Alex Ridha to co-produce the set. Shears recalled to The Sun: "I was in Ibiza at the end of last August with Alex. We'd been up all night and we were on our friend's rooftop, looking out over the ocean. I had a demo of 'Only The Horses' with me and right before sunrise I played it to everybody. It was a special moment. I asked Alex right then if he'd work on the record with us. For me, that was the start of the album, which is why we called it 'Magic Hour.'"
• Wondering what the song is about? So was female singer Ana Matronic when she heard it. "I worried that people would not understand," she told Spinner, "but then I started thinking about some of my favorite bands like Echo and the Bunnymen, who wrote these beautiful, amazing, rather nonsensical songs. You didn't know what [Ian McCulloch] meant by 'kissing the tortoise shell,' but you were like, 'Yeah! I'm right there kissing the tortoise shell too.' It was just one of those songs that has this expansive feeling to it."