Songfacts®:

• The first single released to be released after Ian McCulloch, Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson reformed Echo & the Bunnymen in 1997 after a four year hiatus, this gently epic ballad reached #8 on the UK Singles Chart.
• McCulloch (from Uncut magazine August 2014): "I'd had that song since 1990 in various forms. The others were very negative – Will said, 'It's a bit pretty' and I thought, 'You f---ing idiot, that's like calling 'The Killing Moon' a bit beautiful.'"
  
  "To me it's the most important song I've ever written, because it takes me back to being taken seriously, and it's one of the best songs of all time."
• The song got an extra boost from uncredited backing vocals by Oasis' Liam Gallagher. McCulloch recalled: "Oasis were in the studio next door doing Be Here Now. Liam came in and listened to 'Nothing Lasts Forever,' and he had ideas for tambourine and a backing vocal and we thought, 'Yeah, we're having that.' He was spot on, it really made that song great. With the lineage of frontmen through the years, having him on it made sense for me."