The song was written by frontman Black Francis while he attended the University of Massachusetts Amherst, inspired by his experiences while scuba diving in the Caribbean. He later said he had "this very small fish trying to chase me. I don't know why—I don't know too much about fish behavior."[2]
Guitarist Joey Santiago composed the song's guitar line. He recalled of his part, "This was actually the first thing I tried. A lazy arpeggio that instantly sounded strong and hooky."[3]
After being featured in the 1999 film Fight Club (in which the song plays over the final scene), the song gained an even wider audience.[4][5]
"Where Is My Mind?" was voted number 29 in the "Hottest 100 of All Time" music poll conducted by Australian radio station Triple J in 2009.[6] Over half a million votes were cast in the poll.
On April 13, 2004, NASA used "Where Is My Mind?" to wake up the team working on the Mars rover, Spirit, in honor of its software transplant.[7]
Criminal Minds featured the song on an episode titled Sex, Birth, Death. A xylophone version of the song was used in episode titled "The Lesson".
In 2016 an all-kazoo version of the song was used in The Tick episode "Where's My Mind."[8]
Australian rock band End of Fashion were criticized for the similarities between the guitar riff from "Where Is My Mind?" and the one used in their 2005 song "O Yeah". Rockus Online Magazine reviewer Jonathon Miller called the song "disturbingly Pixies-ish", and went on to write:
End of Fashion are having no problem appealing to the 95% of people that haven't heard (and still remember) the Pixies' "Where Is My Mind?" and have never experienced a truly exciting live show, and if that's what the band is aiming for, then they are a complete success.[12]
All Elite Wrestling's Orange Cassidy and Best Friends first used "Where Is My Mind?" as their new entrance theme in March 2021. AEW CEO Tony Khan signed a multiyear agreement to use the song and said, “every use of the song in AEW will live in our content library forever in perpetuity.”[13]
In a Cracked article titled "How 'Where Is My Mind' Became Hollywood's Laziest Trope," the repeated use of the song has been criticized as "shorthand for telling you that a character has issues telling the difference between what's real and what isn't—especially if multiple personalities are involved."[14]
A live version of the song recorded at 2004's Coachella was released free through BitTorrent.[15]
In 2023, it was revealed that Francis' remark of the word "stop" at the beginning of the song triggered certain Google phones to switch off their alarms.[16]