Songfacts®:

• This ethereal track from Crow's fifth studio album was co-written by her longtime songwriting partner, Jeff Trott.
• In our interview with Jeff Trott, he said that he was partly inspired by the work of the eccentric author and lecturer Terence McKenna, who found popularity in the '90s as the "intellectual voice of the Rave culture." Trott explained: "[McKenna] studied Psilocybin mushrooms, the effects and the religious aspects of these hallucinogenic drugs. He had this theory that human beings didn't start talking until like a Neanderthal picked a mushroom and ate it, and then all of a sudden his brain started developing and he could speak, or he could communicate through words.
  
  It's really weird. It's kind of far-fetched, but I love reading stuff that's just out there. He also called Psilocybin mushrooms the telephone to God.
  
  'Chances Are' really was inspired by this kind of philosophy. I managed to somehow talk Sheryl into writing it with me, and it's pretty cool. I love the music in it, too. It's really kind of odd and not what you would typically associate Sheryl with. It's not that weird, but for her it was a little left of center."
• McKenna is also name-checked in the song's lyrics:
  
  Terence McKenna said
  It is better to explore within
  We were apes before we spoke of sin