Recorded at Ocean Way studios, the song was intended as a Beach Boys pastiche, in a similar vein to The Beatles' Back in the USSR, though the vocal deliveries were more similar to 70s Beach Boys album tracks like "Funky Pretty" and "The Trader".
Interviewed in Q, Costello said the song was, "obviously designed to be as much like a Californian summer record as possible, but you listen to what's going on in the song and it's contradictory of that.