It is the opening track from their 2011 studio album El Camino and was released as the record's lead single on October 26, 2011.

The song is also the A-side of a promotional 12-inch single that was released in commemoration of Record Store Day's "Back to Black" Friday event.

[3] The single was accompanied by a popular one-shot music video of a man dancing and lip-synching the lyrics.

[7] The guitar line features a dive bomb, although Auerbach uses a Boss Super Shifter pitch shift pedal to achieve the effect.

[8] The promotional music video for "Lonely Boy" features actor, musician and part-time security guard Derrick T. Tuggle dancing and lip-syncing to the song in front of the Pepper Tree Motel in North Hollywood, a neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

"[9] Tuggle was originally cast as an extra who would be handed a set of keys to the band's motel room by Auerbach and Carney.

The cover of the single release features an image of a bulldozer sitting on an empty tract of land.

"[24] Its review of El Camino praised the song's arrangement, particularly the "sugar-crusted keyboard" that, along with the chorus, "chang[es] the swampy chug into a seductive singalong".

[25] James Lachno of The Daily Telegraph said the song "blends Steppenwolf's road-tripping aesthetic with the proto-punk of the Modern Lovers" and was an example of how a "broader collage of influences allows the duo to fashion a more distinctive sound".

[28] Readers of Rolling Stone voted "Lonely Boy" the third-best song of 2011 in an end-of-year poll.

[31] According to AirCheck, "Lonely Boy" was the most-played song on Australian radio in 2012, logging more than 884 hours of playtime.

Spanish TV show Late Motiv used a version of it performed by its house band as its opening theme.