Background tissue signals such as water and/or fat are suppressed in an MR image by using an imaging agent that chemically shifts the tissue spins of interest. An imaging pulse sequence is used to acquire the image data using an RF excitation pulse that is tuned to the off-resonance tissue spins of interest with the saturation pulse sequences being interleaved with the imaging pulse sequences to selectively suppress signals from on-resonance background tissues such as water and/or fat.