It was released on March 10, 1998, as the lead single from their second studio album, Feeling Strangely Fine, and began to receive mainstream radio airplay on April 27, 1998.

The single reached number one on the US Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart and the top 50 in Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.

[17] It involves a split screen in which Wilson and the band performing the song together are on the right side while a woman working in a laundromat she is about to close down for the night is on the left.

The woman tries to call Wilson, but he does not hear the phone ring or see the message she left due to his performing the song.

Most notably on November 16, 2016, Fort Worth and Dallas, Texas-based alternative station KDGE (102.1 FM) played a continuous loop of "Closing Time" while redirecting its listeners to its area sister mainstream rock station KEGL (97.1 FM).

This continued until 5 p.m. on November 17, 2016, when the station flipped to Christmas music then full-time to a mainstream adult contemporary format on December 26.