It is the opening track and lead single from Waits' debut studio album, Closing Time, released in March 1973 on Asylum Records.

[1] The title, "Ol' '55", refers to the singer's vehicle, A 1955 Buick Roadmaster, "the first real luxury automobile I had ... about as slick as deer guts on a doorknob.

In a 1975 interview, Waits was critical of the Eagles' cover version of his song, admitting that he was "not that particularly crazy about (their) rendition of it ...

Their albums are good for keeping the dust off your turntable and that’s about all.”[4] After the Eagles performed the song at the band’s millennium concert in 1999, Glenn Frey told the audience, “Tom didn’t really like our version of Ol’ ’55 when it first came out … and then he got the (royalties) check.

[5] AEW President and CEO Tony Khan purchased the rights to the song in perpetuity, saying "so the tribute will last forever".