Branigan told "People" magazine that she and her producers had at first attempted an English version of Tozzi's "Gloria" in the romantic mode of the original, changing the title to "Mario", but that this seemed ineffective. Ultimately, Branigan recorded an English re-invention of "Gloria" as a character study of, in her words, "a girl that's running too fast for her own steps", the cover lyrics of which were written by Trevor Veitch, the contractor for the "Branigan" album, to which he also contributed guitar work; while Branigan also did her part in co-writing of the cover song's lyrics.