 Russell, believing "that in every title there's a song somewhere" made a habit of "collecting" interesting phrases she heard and placing them in a notebook for potential song titles .It was through this process that she wrote the lyrics to "Piano in the Dark" as the title seemed to fit with the music her co-writers sent her.In the early stages Russell did not understand what the title would refer to eventually deciding it was about 
Initially "Gravity" was planned to be released as the first single, however Herb Alpert pushed to have "Piano" released instead feeling that it better represented her as an artist.