Closing Time
Semisonic
No annual list year
Date not established. No original release year is inferred from a screenshot filename.
Release: 1998
Release: 1998Source checked
The direct songwriter-interview introduction dates the recording release to March 1998. The focused collection remains undated as a listening-list grouping.
The large badge identifies this listening list, not a newly issued recording. Later reissues and renewed chart popularity do not replace an original release date. How years are assigned.
Song Exploder: Dan Wilson on Closing Time
The direct songwriter-interview introduction dates the recording release to March 1998. The focused collection remains undated as a listening-list grouping.
Inspiration and background
Documented songwriting inspiration
Dan Wilson was expecting a child when he wrote this. Halfway through, he recognized that the bar-closing images could also describe birth and entering the world. He deliberately developed that double meaning, drawing on his admiration for poetry in which an ordinary scene carries another meaning beneath it.
Evidence scope: Direct songwriter account in episode 176, pages 1-2, explains the expected child and deliberate double meaning.
Sources for this information
Song Exploder: Dan Wilson interview transcript
Direct songwriter account in episode 176, pages 1-2, explains the expected child and deliberate double meaning. | Retrieved 2026-10-17
Earlier note and its recorded status
Earlier status: Basic catalog context. This earlier wording is retained as historical context; the reviewed account above is the current summary.
The supplied catalog identifies Closing Time by Semisonic. A reliable song-specific creative-origin account has not yet been established.
Other appearances and versions
Exact recording version not independently established
An annual chart year and an original release date are different. Similar titles may be covers or different masters; no audio fingerprint has been performed.
Sources and scope
Source-scoped curated selection; not an official all-time ranking or complete recording review.
Editorial listening-collection classification; not independently established for each recording.
Supplied alt rock 02.png, row 13
Visual metadata, not audio or release-date verification.
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