“Diamonds On My Windshield” by Tom Waits

"Diamonds on My Windshield" rides along on The Heart of Saturday Night, the second Tom Waits album, which Asylum put out on October 15, 1974. Waits wrote it, words and music, and it's cut with a lean, after-hours combo: Waits at the piano and the microphone, Jim Hughart thumbing the double bass, Bill Goodwin on drums and Pete Christlieb blowing tenor sax, with Bob Alcivar arranging.

The album began Waits' decade-long partnership with Bones Howe, who produced and engineered everything he recorded until he left Asylum, and it carries its late-night mood right onto the cover, a nod to Frank Sinatra's In the Wee Small Hours with a worn-out Waits leaving a neon-lit cocktail lounge while a blonde looks on. Not everyone was sold: in the Village Voice, Janet Maslin heard boozy affectation and vague lyrics, and a mood pinned too tightly in place.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz.