It is the opening track on Waits' fourth studio album Small Change, released in September 1976 on Asylum Records.
It has since been covered by a number of artists, including Rod Stewart, who released a version of the song on the compilation album Lead Vocalist (1993).
"[3] In May 1979, Waits himself confirmed the song's origins during a live performance in Sydney, Australia, stating "I met this girl named Matilda.
Recalling the experience, Howe said "he [Waits] went down and hung around on Skid Row in L.A. because he wanted to get stimulated for writing this material.
'Yeah – hunkered down, drank the pint of rye, went home, threw up, and wrote 'Tom Traubert's Blues' [...] every guy down there... everyone I spoke to, a woman put him there.
A fifteen-piece orchestral ensemble performs on the song, arranged and conducted by Jerry Yester who had produced Waits' debut studio album Closing Time (1973).
[6] The song's lyrics narrate the story of Tom Traubert, "a man who finds himself stranded and penniless in a foreign land."
Biographer Jay S. Jacobs has described Traubert as "etched as a sympathetic character, but it's clear that he inhabits a hell of his own making.
"[5] "Tom Traubert's Blues" was included as the opening track on Small Change, released in September 1976 on Asylum Records.
"[9] "Tom Traubert's Blues" was debuted live on the BBC2 television show The Old Grey Whistle Test on May 3, 1977.
Released as a single in November 1992, it was later included on the compilation Lead Vocalist (1993) and live albums Unplugged...and Seated (1993) and You're in My Heart: Rod Stewart with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (2019).