Songfacts®:

• In the UK this was released as a cheap limited edition single featuring just this song, retailing at 99 pence. It was deleted after its first day on sale hence its high chart entry and rapid fall (in its second week it tumbled 31 places to #34).
• This was voted by the New Musical Express as its single of the year.
• The Doves are made up of twins Andy & Jez Williams, and Jimi Goodwin. Childhood friends in Altrincham, Cheshire, they formed Sub Sub in their teenage years. In 1993 they recorded a UK Top 3 single "Ain't No Love (Ain't No Use)" with the help of singer Melanie Williams. However a studio fire destroyed all of their recordings before they'd released an album. Sub Sub disbanded and the same line-up started afresh as The Doves.
• The song originated with a guitar riff that Jez Williams came up with. He recalled to Uncut: "I used to live in a house in Northenden in Manchester, and that's where the guitar riff for 'There Goes The Fear' came to me. I had this old, knackered Dictaphone that I recorded it on. That's became the foundation of the song."
• Lyrically, "There Goes The Fear" is a song about regrets, and trying not to live in regret. Drummer Andy Williams told Uncut:
  
  "I did the lyrics in my old house in Chorlton. I had a very early demo, just with a floating melody, and I remember being at home with a cassette player, and spending two days rewinding the tape, laboriously going through the whole track writing lyrics to it with a Dictaphone and a lyric book.
  
  The first lines that came were, 'You look to those you love to justify. You turned around and life's past you by.' That was an in. I thought right, I can build something around this, around regret, and taking responsibility for the way your life has gone. There's also quite a positive message as well: move on with your life."