Songfacts®:

• Take That first sang "Back For Good" at the 1995 Brit Awards, and it created such a stir that its release date was brought forward and the song was made available to radio stations six weeks before its release. It sold 350,000 copies in the UK in its first week of release, the highest amount in 10 years, and became Take That's biggest UK seller, selling 959,582 copies. It also hit #1 in many countries abroad and was Take That's only US Top 40 hit. The song's writer, Gary Barlow, aimed the song at moms and dads as well as the band's teenage fans, with Barlow singing from the perspective of a man pleading with his lover to come back to him.
• It took Gary Barlow just 15 minutes to write "Back For Good" after his record label put him under a tight deadline to write Take That's third album. He reflected to the BBC in a 2020 interview:
  
  "You do it just because that's what you've been told to do. You don't think, 'Wow, this is so much pressure, everyone. How can I do this?' You just get on with it. I was full of confidence at the time because we were having hits all over the world. And that is a good place to be as an artist."
• It has been rumored that the Bee Gees helped write this. Speaking to The Guardian in a 2013 interview, Barry Gibb denied this was the case, saying he has never even heard the song.
  
  Gibb and Take That did eventually team up to cover "How Deep Is Your Love" in 2018. Take That previously covered the song in 1996 before embarking on a decade-long hiatus.
• This won the 1996 BRIT Award for Best Single and two Ivor Novello Awards.
• In 2011, Barlow revealed in an interview with former BBC Radio 1 DJ Zane Lowe that this song was musically based on "Easy" by Commodores.
• The iconic music video was shot in black and white at Pinewood Studios and depicts Take That singing in the rain while dressed in long coats and fur caps. Several band members came down with the flu after shooting the video due to spending so long in such cold, damp conditions. Directed by Vaughan Arnell and Anthea Benton, the video was the last to feature Robbie Williams until he reunited with Take That in 2010.
  
  British-Irish boy band The Wanted later paid tribute to the video in the clip for "Walks Like Rihanna." New Kids on the Block also referenced it in the video for "Boys in the Band (Boy Band Anthem)."
• "Back for Good" features in the final episode of the British sitcom Spaced. Tim Bisley and friends are seen playing the song for their landlady, Marsha Klein, through a boombox in the style of the John Cusack movie Say Anything....
  
  It also appears in the last episode of the British version of The Office. The song plays as Dawn Tinsley and Tim Cantebury bid farewell to each other at the Christmas party before Dawn returns to passionately kiss Tim.
• According to Barlow, there are 89 cover versions of "Back for Good." Boyz II Men, McAlmont & Butler, and The Wedding Present are among the artists who have recorded the song.
  
  Coldplay also performed "Back for Good" live with Barlow in 2009. Martin later called the moment a "lifelong ambition" of his.
• Robbie Williams started performing a mocking heavy rock version of this song at his live concerts after quitting Take That on unpleasant terms in 1995. This rendition eventually appeared as a B-side to his hit single "Angels." Williams subsequently performed this rock version of "Back for Good" with Take That after receiving the BRITs Icon Award in 2016.
• "Back for Good" stayed at #1 in the UK for four weeks. It was Take That's sixth chart-topper, eventually knocked off the #1 spot by Oasis' "Some Might Say." Some people saw this as heralding the end of the boy-band era, with Take That splitting up a few months later.
  
  Noel Gallagher nevertheless complimented "Back for Good," telling Mojo in 1997: "If it touches people, it's a good song. People go on about Take That, but 'Back for Good' said something to me."
• This song appears on Take That's third studio album, Nobody Else. The album peaked at #1 in the UK and across several countries in Europe. Nobody Else spawned two other #1 hits: "Sure" and "Never Forget."