Songfacts®:

• This song is about wanting someone to the point that thinking about this person creates a voice inside your head that keeps you awake. Your body aches for that person because of the memory of their touch.
  
  Garbage lead singer Shirley Manson didn't write literal lyrics for the Version 2.0, but used them as an expression of what she was feeling at various times. She wrote quite viscerally, which suited their soundscapes very well.
• "Push It" borrows some lyrics and part of the vocal melody from the 1964 Beach Boys track "Don't Worry Baby." The original plan was to sample the song, but they settled for an interpolation when that proved too challenging legally.
  
  Along with band members Doug Erikson, Shirley Manson, Steve Marker and Butch Vig, Brian Wilson of The Beach Boys and his "Don't Worry Baby" co-writer Roger Christian are credited as songwriters on the track.
• In a 2013 Songfacts interview with Garbage drummer Butch Vig, he cited this track as one of his favorites to play live. "That was a big track from Version 2.0 for us and still gets my adrenaline going every night," he said.
• The surreal video, directed by Andrea Giacobbe, was nominated for eight MTV Video Music Awards (including Best Group Video and Best Direction) but didn't win any.
• The breathy "push it" refrain is similar to what we hear in the 1987 Salt-N-Pepa hit with the same title. The Version 2.0 album has a few other throwbacks to songs by other artists: "Special" recalls "Talk Of The Town" by the Pretenders, and "Sleep Together" calls out to "Never Say Never" by Romeo Void.
  
  Hurby (Luv Bug) Azor, who wrote Salt-N-Pepa's "Push It," has a writing credit on the Garbage song.