

It samples Enya's “One by One” from her album A Day without Rain. "Fading" was written by Jamal James and Ester Dean, while the rest of the song was produced by Polow da Don.

Rumor has it that this would be the first single from the re-release of the album Loud, which was later canceled when Rihanna announced that the re-release would be canceled and instead of it, she will release her sixth studio album, Talk That Talk, in November 2011. In August 2011 a remix of "Fading" was produced by da Don and published on the Internet. In the United States, "Man Down" was also released before the official release of "California King Bed". Internationally it served as the fourth single. On March 12, it was confirmed that "California King Bed" would be the next single in the United States. The song with the most votes should have its own video by the end of March. Rihanna asked via Twitter if she should take "Cheers (Drink to That)", "Man Down", "California King Bed" or "Fading". In early March 2011, Rihanna asked her fans which single should be the next after "S&M" by Loud. The works overlapped with her Last Girl on Earth tour and shooting the film Battleship (2012) by making her film debut. Recordings for Loud began in February 2010 and lasted six months. The song was written by Jamal James and Ester Dean, while the production of the song was done by Polow da Don. Fading is a song by Barbadian singer Rihanna from her fifth studio album Loud.
