The promo video for the song was directed by Jean-Baptiste Mondino, it features boxer Jake LaMotta and Neith Hunter.

[3] Originally released as a non-album single, Stewart's version of "Downtown Train" was included on some editions of his 1991 album Vagabond Heart.

Seger decided not to release his version in 1989 as originally planned but instead re-recorded it in 2011 for his album Ultimate Hits: Rock and Roll Never Forgets.

Everything but the Girl's acoustic cover, also recorded in 1989 and later put on the reissue of The Language of Life, was used for the climactic scene of the 2014's final episode of the long-running series How I Met Your Mother.

Music supervisor Andy Gowan says that Carter Bays "basically put it in the script, and wrote that script with that song in mind"; Gowan described the song as "heartbreakingly beautiful" and captured both the "sweet and romantic" and the "somber, dark part" of the scene.