The majority of the track was originally recorded in 1973 as part of The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get sessions.

The song was a hit in the United States, peaking at #34 on the Billboard Hot 100, and also reaching #1 on the magazine's Top Tracks chart,[1] where his former bandmates Don Henley and Glenn Frey would also score #1 hits.

Record World said that "Walsh's existential lyrics wind into a great hook.

The song is used as the musical background to the opening scene in the film The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), and appears as the first track on the soundtrack album.

The song is likewise referenced in author Rick Riordan's The Burning Maze (2018), the third book in The Trials of Apollo series.