Besides becoming a pop hit in its own right, reaching No. 10 on the Billboard Hot 100, it was also the first No. 1 song on Billboard's Top Tracks chart for rock songs, which debuted in March 1981. It stayed at the summit for two weeks. The song reached No. 15 in Canada. By 1981, Broadcast Music, Inc. measured more than one million broadcasts of the song, earning Clapton a special recognition certificate.

Frontman Tom Petty explained that the song's title was inspired by a quote from fellow musician Janis Joplin, who once said of touring, "I love being onstage and everything else is just waiting." He recalled:

That's where I think I got it from ... [Roger] McGuinn swears that he said it to me. Maybe he did. I don't think so. I think I got it from the Janis Joplin quote. That's where it stuck in my mind. I don't think she said, 'The waiting is the hardest part,' but it was something to that effect: 'Everything else is just waiting.' And so that's where that came from.