Songfacts®:

• This was the first single released from English trip hop musician Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye. In 1991, when Tricky was a member of Massive Attack, he met a 15-year-old girl named Martina Topley-Bird. She mentioned to the musician that she could sing and they recorded this song together. Tricky recalled to the NME September 4, 2010: "I met Martina and we went down to the studio and recorded it. It sat around for four years. I used to play it to my cousin and she'd say, 'You need to get this out.' I pressed up 500 and put them around to Djs and then Island got in contact with me. It was just playing around, really. I was still considered being in Massive Attack. I gave it to Massive Attack and they didn't like it, so I kept it."
  The track was eventually released as Tricky's debut solo single after he left Massive Attack, charting at #69 in the UK. By this time Martina Topley-Bird had become his girlfriend and muse and she was a featured vocalist on Maxinquaye.
• The song samples Marvin Gaye's 1969 cover of the Isley Brothers' song, "That's the Way Love Is."
• Among the movies this song has appeared in are Alien Autopsy, Veronica Guerin and Silent Cry.
• Maxinquaye was named after Tricky's late mother Maxine Quaye and it received great critical acclaim upon release. Both the NME and Melody Maker ranked it the best CD of 1995.