Waits wrote this song about his new wife, Kathleen Brennan. He was getting over a turbulent relationship with Rickie Lee Jones when she came into his life and "saved him." When Jones and Waits split, Francis Ford Coppola asked them both to work on the music for his film One From The Heart. Jones declined, but Waits took the gig, which is where he met Brennan, who was on the project as a script supervisor. They got married just months later.
Bruce Springsteen covered this song in concert on many occasions. He started performing it at a series of shows in 1981 at the new Meadowlands arena in New Jersey. Even though he did not write this, Springsteen feels the character is the same guy from his earlier songs "Sandy" and "Rosalita," who has now grown up and got the Jersey Girl.
Springsteen released this as the B-side of "Cover Me" in 1984. Two years later, he used the same version, taken from a show at The Meadowlands, on his boxed set Live 1975-1985. This is one of the few cover songs Springsteen released. Usually it was other artists performing his songs.
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