and that was all we needed." Barlow added, "I spent the last 15 years thinking about what I was going to say." "Shame" was written by Barlow and Williams for Williams's second greatest hits album, In and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010 (2010). In February 2010, the single was composed and written in an hour, in an empty recording studio located in Los Angeles; it was inspired by their past troubled relationship. English musician Trevor Horn produced "Shame" whilst Tim Weidner and Graham Archer did the engineering of the track; Dave Miles served as an additional engineer. Weidner also provided the mixing of the song. All of its mastering was done at the Metropolis Studios in London and the Gateway Mastering in Portland, Maine. "Shame" was released as the lead and only single from In and Out of Consciousness: Greatest Hits 1990–2010. It was made available for digital download via the iTunes Store on 27 August 2010 in some countries, including Australia, Denmark, Germany and Italy. In singers's native United Kingdom it was placed for digital purchase over a month later on 1 October. On 4 October, Virgin Records released a CD single of "Shame" in the UK; apart from the title track, the single featured another song performed by Williams, titled "The Queen". Composition and lyrical interpretation "Shame" is a pop song with a length of three minutes fifty-nine seconds. According to Faber Music's digital sheet music for the song, "Shame" is composed in the key of Bb major and set in common time signature, and has a moderately slow groove of 96 beats per minute. The singers's vocals span from the low note of B3 to the high note of B5. Michael Cragg of The Guardian noted that the single features country music influences and an "electro-tinged" chorus, reminiscent of the works of British producer Stuart Price. Digital Spy's Mayer Nissim noted that "Shame" contains an acoustic guitar part which is similar to the one of "Blackbird", a 1968 song written by Paul McCartney and performed by The Beatles. The lyrical content of "Shame" revolves around "the breakdown in the relationship" that Williams and Barlow experienced after the former left Take That. Williams starts the song with the line, "Well there's three versions of this story / Mine and yours and then the truth", whilst Barlow responds channelling his original attempt for reconciliation, "I read your mind