While artists like The Drifters and Simon & Garfunkel had their influence on the song, Tom Waits had someone specific in mind when he wrote his love ballad. According to All Music, Waits wrote the song for his girlfriend, Kathleen Brennan. At the time, Brennan, a native of Illinois, was living in New Jersey, as told by Purple Clover. The same year he released the song and album, Brennan and Waits got married.
A year prior, Waits might not have been able to write such a ballad. According to Song Facts, prior to meeting Brennan, Waits was getting over the end of a turbulent relationship with fellow singer/songwriter, Rickie Lee Jones. Despite their split, director Francis Ford Coppola asked the two to work on the music for his film, “One From The Heart.” Jones declined while Waits accepted the offer. On the film set, he met Brennan who was working on the film as a script supervisor. The pair were married within the year. Wait said Brennan, “saved him” when she came into his life. Around the same time, Waits had left his label, Asylum Records. The “Heartattack and Vine” album marked a shift in Waits’ music as much as it did his personal life.
