During recording sessions for "Techno Cumbia", A.B. encouraged Selena to rap with a New York accent similar to Rosie Perez. During a New York trip, A.B. heard the Pretenders' 1983 single "Back on the Chain Gang" on the radio. Concerned about the lack of material the band had to record for the album, and captivated by the idea of reworking "Back on the Chain Gang" into a Spanish-language cumbia song, A.B. asked Vela to write a translation of the lyrics. After discovering that Selena had sampled her song, Pretenders' vocalist Chrissie Hynde prevented the band from releasing "Amor Prohibido" and demanded a translation from Vela before she approved a rights agreement. At the time of Hynde's refusal, the band had $475,000 (1994 USD) of pre-sale copies in a warehouse that included "Fotos y Recuerdos". Noticing it was the shortest track on "Amor Prohibido", musicologist James Perone felt that "Fotos y Recuerdos" had "stripped some of the edge off of Hynde's text but retained the basic premise of ["Back on the Chain Gang"]". Perone complemented A.B.'s arrangement as "an example of universal Latin approach."