The single version differs as it has a shorter opening, the first two verses are cut and combined into one, the saxophone bridge is virtually eliminated, and the song fades out sooner during the big ride-out.

A 1985 article in Rolling Stone said the song was about Hall's divorce from wife Bryna Lublin, while VH1's Behind the Music episode on the duo showed Oates explaining it was about a girlfriend that stood him up on New Year's Eve.

John Oates spoke of the song in a 2009 interview with American Songwriter: "I sat down with the guitar and sang the chorus of 'She's Gone' basically the way that it is.

To promote the song, Hall & Oates were asked to lip sync “She’s Gone” for a teenage TV dance show broadcast out of Atlantic City, New Jersey.

[11][10] The promotional video for "She's Gone", directed by John Oates] sister,[12] opens with shots of the "abandoned luncheonette" (see note about Album Cover on Abandoned Luncheonette) in which Hall & Oates sit in recliners, Hall wearing a robe and women's platform sandals, Oates wearing a sleeveless tuxedo shirt and pants and singing the song while a woman in a long dress (played by Sara Allen) and a man dressed in a shiny red devil's costume (played by Randy Hoffman, the band's tour manager)[13] repeatedly walk past the pair.

Towards the end of the video, Oates rises, dons a penguin jacket and proceeds to emulate the song's guitar solo.

[12] (In an earlier Oates interview, he insinuated that they were in fact asked to lip sync the performance of the song in a "live" context, but that they were against that idea and opted to create a video to be aired during the broadcast.

"[16] Cash Box described the song as "starting out softly, the build is strong with super strings in the background to tie the package together.

"[17] After the song's re-release in 1976, the same magazine describe it as a "beautiful ballad" with the "sweet, high harmony" vocals are "immensely pleasing", and the melody line is "full of hooks, particularly in the chorus.

"[18] Record World called it " a fabulous song" and said that "top notch production underscores twosome's solid performance.

In 1998, English actor and singer Matthew Marsden released his version of the song, featuring Destiny's Child on backing vocals.