Because of such lyrics, along with the connections between the Misfits and Vicious, the song is commonly said to have been based on the unsolved murder of Spungen. However, the song's lyrics have also been noted as possible references to the 1960 film "Psycho", which features a scene involving a character being stabbed to death in a bathroom. The line "Psycho '78", which also appears in the song, has been interpreted as transposing the year in which the film was released (as well as when the film's narrative takes place) to the year that the song was recorded. The songs "Horror Business" and "Teenagers from Mars" were considered for inclusion in a 1979 12" record which would have also featured the song "Who Killed Marilyn?". An acetate disc of this proposed release was pressed, but completing a run of 12" records for the release was deemed to be too expensive, and so the release was scrapped. The first pressing of the "Horror Business" single, issued by Danzig's own label Plan 9 Records on June 26, 1979, consisted of 25 sleeveless black 7" vinyl copies. The second pressing, from August 1979, consisted of 2,000 copies on yellow vinyl. Due to a pressing error, approximately 20 copies had the track "Horror Business" on both sides, rather than "Horror Business" on the A-side and "Teenagers from Mars" and "Children in Heat" on the B-side. Many copies contained an insert with a fabricated story claiming that the band had recorded the single in an abandoned haunted house in New Jersey, and that, when later mixing the tapes at a recording studio in New York City, they heard strange voices and noises in the background of the recordings. According to a 1993 interview with Jerry Only: "What happened was, there was a weird sound on there, and we didn't know where the hell it came from. So we said, 'What are we gonna do? Are we gonna remix it?' I said, 'Well, I don't got no more money. This is it. You gotta like what you got.' We thought about it, and we thought, we don't want everybody to think we're a bunch of jerks. So I think I mentioned it, 'Let's just say it was recorded in a haunted house. Everybody'll love that!'" The songs "Horror Business", "Teenagers from Mars", and "Children in Heat" have been re-released multiple times since the single was first issued.