Ol' '55

"Ol' '55"
Single by Tom Waits
from the album Closing Time
Released	1973 (1973)
Format	7"
Recorded	Spring 1972 at Sunset Sound Recorders and United Western Recorders in Hollywood, California
Genre	Folk
Length	3:58
Label	Asylum
Songwriter(s)	Tom Waits
Producer(s)	Jerry Yester
Tom Waits singles chronology
"Ol' '55" (1973) "Blues Skies" (1974)
"Ol' '55" (1973) "Blues Skies" (1974)

"Ol' '55" is a song by American musician Tom Waits. It is the opening track and lead single from Waits' debut studio album, Closing Time, released in March 1973 on Asylum Records. Written by Waits and produced by Jerry Yester, "Ol' '55" was a minor hit. The song has been covered by numerous artists, most notably by the Eagles on their On the Border (1974), although Waits has been critical of the Eagles' cover version of the song, admitting that he was "not that particularly crazy about (their) rendition of it ... I thought their version was a little antiseptic." ^[1]

Cover versions

• 1974 Eagles on the album On the Border, and a live version on disc 4 of their 2000 compilation Selected Works: 1972-1999. It was also the b-side of the single Best of My Love.
• 1974 Fairport Convention singer Iain Matthews, on the album Some Days You Eat the Bear
• 1975 Eric Andersen on the album Be True To You
• 1980 Richie Havens on the album "Connections"
• 1994 Sarah McLachlan on The Freedom Sessions
• 1999 Acda en De Munnik on the 1999 bonus album Live in de orangerie
• 1999 K's Choice on the enhanced CD Extra Cocoon - All Access
• 2009 Sass Jordan on the album From Dusk 'Til Dawn
• 2010 Gov't Mule covered "Ol' 55" for the first time on July 18, 2010 in Charlotte, NC as an encore performed with Jackie Greene.
• 2012 Nick & Simon on the album Sterker (Deluxe/ DVD Wisseloord Sessies)
• 2015 Owen Campbell on the album In the Shadow of the Greats

References