Vashti Bunyan had initially appeared on the English music scene in 1965 after meeting record producer Andrew Loog Oldham with a promising assortment of original material. Even with the hype boasting that Bunyan could replace Marianne Faithfull, who had recently departed Decca Records, her debut single, the Mick Jagger and Keith Richards-penned "Some Things Just Stick in Your Mind", did not achieve much critical traction. Sensing a follow-up release would not materialize, Bunyan decided to depart Oldham's stable to record with Peter Snell. Bunyan recorded "Train Song", the melody of which stemmed from her own composition, "17 Pink Elephants", with lyrics written by folkie Alastair Clayre. Upon release, however, "Train Song" failed to fulfil Bunyan's vision of her acoustic arrangements appealing to pop culture as the single was met with the same lack of commercial success as Bunyan's debut. As a result, the brief media exposure surrounding her faded by late 1966, Bunyan detached herself from the London music scene, and had been all but forgotten by mainstream pop audiences.