The arrangement includes a distinctive horn section riff, which caused some listeners to mistake the band for Blood, Sweat & Tears, who were also popular in that era.

"Vehicle" was a commercial success, and was purported to be the fastest-selling single in the history of Warner Bros. at that time.

[2] Peterik wrote "Vehicle" as a tongue-in-cheek joke, having been initially inspired by anti-drug pamphlets passed out to high-schoolers.

[3] He expanded on the song's genesis in a piece for The Wall Street Journal: At the time, I was madly in love with this girl named Karen.

[4]Peterik had an on-again/off-again relationship with the woman after the song came out, and they eventually wed.[5] Fourteen seconds of the completed "Vehicle" master tape (primarily the guitar solo) was accidentally erased in the recording studio.

From the second "Great God in heaven" all the way up to the guitar solo—-when you hear how abrupt that first note of the solo sounds, that's an edit.It rose to number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart the week of May 23, 1970,[6][7] behind "American Woman" by the Guess Who.