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"Outside" was released on 19 October 1998 as the lead single from George Michael's first greatest hits album, Ladies & Gentlemen: The Best of George Michael (1998). It was released through Epic Records and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Michael's most recent UK top-three hit. In Greece, Hungary, and Spain, the song peaked at number one. The song's music video, directed by Vaughan Arnell, shows couples of various sexual orientations engaging in lewd public activities while Michael, dressed as a police officer, dances in a public toilet, referencing his arrest for cottaging in April 1998.
The song was Michael's first single since his arrest for engaging in a lewd act six months earlier by an undercover police officer in the public lavatory of the Will Rogers Memorial Park in Beverly Hills, California – an incident that prompted him to declare his homosexuality, which had been rumoured for some years but never publicly confirmed.
Michael disparaged the incident in the lyrics, claiming he wanted an alfresco sex life because he was bored with lovemaking behind closed doors. Reference to the Beverly Hills affair came with the line: "I'd service the community, but I already have, you see" (he was sentenced to 80 hours of community service for the offense) and direct samples of radio reports of his arrest.
In a 2004 interview with Adam Mattera for UK magazine Attitude, Michael reflected: "I felt that lightening the stigma around cruising was the most immediately beneficial thing I could do. I know for a fact that when I was 16, 17, when I started cruising, that watching the Outside video would have taken some of the weight off my shoulders."
The song was recorded at Sarm West in London with a string section and arrangement by Andrew Skeet.
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