[1] The song was featured on Nanci Griffith's album The Last of the True Believers, also released in 1986.
The song inspired the album's cover art, which featured a Woolworths store front.
[2] In a live version included on One Fair Summer Evening — recorded August 19 and 20 1988 at Anderson Fair, Houston, Texas — Griffith explains over an extended introduction that the recurring 'ting' sound heard in the music is meant to be a representation of the sound of an elevator in a Woolworth's store.
Griffith later re-recorded the song as a duet with Darius Rucker for her 1999 album The Dust Bowl Symphony.
The song recounts a love story between a dime store clerk (Rita) and an aspiring steel guitar player (Eddie) over the years.