Upon release, it gave Protheroe his only hit, reaching a peak position of 22 on the UK Singles Chart in September 1974.

[3] Stage roles such as in Bath Theatre Royal's 1970 production of A Midsummer Night's Dream, for which he was also the composer, followed, as well as television appearances in the historical drama Frontier and the anthology mystery series The Rivals of Sherlock Holmes.

[3] In 1973, Protheroe appeared in a production of William Fairchild's play Death on Demand in the role of a pop singer.

"Pinball" is an autobiographical song, described by Protheroe as "a diary entry for one particular weekend in 1973", a time when he had just split up with his girlfriend and was living in a friend's flat in Covent Garden.

[4] The song describes Protheroe's despondent feelings ("my music bores me once again"), setbacks ("and I've run out of pale ale") and activities ("I've been on the pinball) at this time.

Upon release, Reading Evening Post's Pete Butterfield called "Pinball" "one of the most interesting singles of the year"[9] while Max Bell of New Musical Express praised the song's production and its "instant, stylised commercialism".

[5] Among retrospective reviews, AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine has described the song as "an exquisite piece of post-McCartney pop"[3] and Scott Hammond of The Fix Magazine has declared it "one of the lost gems of the 1970s".