An edited version, omitting one verse, made the top five in the UK Singles Chart, and along with "Baker Street" is one of two solo efforts by Gerry Rafferty to accomplish this feat.
[2] The song discusses themes of alcohol abuse,[3] including autobiographical reflections delivered in the third person.
It has been described by Rafferty's estate as a "memorable, top 30 melody with a pitiless self-portrait of an artist using alcohol to blur the edges of a world in which what is real, and valuable, is sometimes effusive".
[4] Though the single was a top-five hit for Rafferty in his native United Kingdom, "Night Owl" was never released in this format in North America, at a time when interest in Rafferty was at its peak after the success of his single "Baker Street" and album City to City a year earlier.
The B-side on the original "Night Owl" single was the fourth track from the same album, "Why Won't You Talk To Me".