Step Right Up

Waits sings Step Right Up as a snake-oil salesman in the style of a carnival barker. The product is never named. Waits wrote it as a satire of products that claim to do more than they advertise. The recording features Waits on vocals and piano, Jim Hughart on bass, Shelly Manne on drums and Lew Tabackin on tenor saxophone. Deusner of Pitchfork wrote that it turns advertising slogans into dark magic, and in live performance Waits used a cash register for percussion.

In 1988 Frito-Lay sought to license the song for a radio ad for a new Doritos flavor. Waits had voiced a dog food commercial, but he objected to songs in advertising and declined. The company hired Stephen Carter to imitate his voice on a similar-sounding jingle, which ran on more than 250 radio stations for a month. Waits sued, won in 1992 and received a settlement of $2.6 million, which he joked he spent on candy.