Small Change is the fourth studio album by singer and songwriter Tom Waits, released on September 21, 1976 on Asylum Records. It was recorded in July at Wally Heider's Studio 3 in Hollywood. It was successful commercially and outsold his previous albums. This resulted in Waits putting together a touring band - The Nocturnal Emissions, which consisted of Frank Vicari on tenor saxophone, FitzGerald Jenkins on bass guitar and Chip White on drums and vibraphone. The Nocturnal Emissions toured Europe and the United States extensively from October 1976 till May 1977.
The cover art features Waits sitting in a go-go dancer's dressing room, with a topless go-go dancer standing nearby. It was alleged that the go-go dancer pictured is Cassandra Peterson, best known as the iconic character Elvira, Mistress of the Dark. Peterson, however, says she's not sure of the authenticity of this claim.
Small Change received critical reviews equal to or better than Waits' previous albums, and was at first a surprise commercial success, rising to #89 on the Billboard chart within two weeks of its release. Three weeks later, the album fell off the Billboard Top 200, and Waits was not to better its position until 1999's Mule Variations.
When asked in an interview with Mojo in 1999 if he shared many fans' view that Small Change was the crowning moment of his "beatnik-glory-meets-Hollywood-noir period" (i.e. from 1973 to 1980), Waits replied:
Well, gee. I'd say there's probably more songs off that record that I continued to play on the road, and that endured. Some songs you may write and record but you never sing them again. Others you sing em every night and try and figure out what they mean. "Tom Traubert's Blues" was certainly one of those songs I continued to sing, and in fact, close my show with.[20]
In 2000, Small Change was voted number 958 in Colin Larkin's All Time Top 1000 Albums.
(en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Change_(Tom_Waits_album))