Gabriel has said that despite the fact that the song came to be exclusively associated with romantic love in popular culture, he originally wanted to write lyrics that were ambiguously about both romantic love and love for God, a blurring employed in some African music.

This song is famously used in the classic romantic comedy Say Anything.

Originally intended as the album’s closing track, Gabriel instead made it the fifth track, as its placement at the start of side two would make the bassline sound deeper and fuller thanks to the physical intricacies of vinyl (in which the turntable needle’s velocity decreases the closer it gets to the center of the record, resulting in a higher noise floor and reduced sound quality, especially in the lower frequencies). This was also the case on CD and cassette limitations, which did not have this limitation. The 2002 and 2012 remasters, meanwhile, would restore Gabriel’s original intention, making “In Your Eyes” the album closer across all formats.