According to drummer John Densmore and guitarist Robby Krieger, the song was presented by keyboardist Ray Manzarek to the group during their early years, and due to their dissatisfaction with the melody, they radically changed it.
"[17][18] With unconventional key changes, the track "seemed calculated to disrupt any radio programme on which it was lucky enough to get played", in the words of NME editors Roy Carr and Charles Shaar Murray.
[17] Reaching number 23 in the UK,[21] the single featured a fold-out sleeve and was backed by Bowie's new acoustic rendition of "Space Oddity", recorded in December 1979 for The "Will Kenny Everett Make It to 1980?"
[18] Discussing the track, biographer Nicholas Pegg calls it "one of the most defiantly uncommercial, discordant and aggressive recordings Bowie ever released".
[18] The song also appeared on the 1992 Rykodisc reissue of Scary Monsters (and Super Creeps), as well as the compilation albums Rare (1982), The Singles Collection (1993), The Best of David Bowie 1980/1987 (2007) and Re:Call 3, part of the A New Career in a New Town (1977–1982) box set, in 2017.