The album was poorly received upon release, with the exception of supportive reviews by Billboard and Lester Bangs of Rolling Stone.

On 29 February 1968, Ono appeared onstage at London's Royal Albert Hall with avant-garde jazz musician Ornette Coleman and his quartet, then consisting of drummer Ed Blackwell and bassists Charlie Haden and David Izenzon.

Describing how she met Coleman, Ono has stated:Ornette was already very, very established and famous and respected guy as a musician.

"[10] More recently, the album has been credited with having an influence on musicians grossly disproportionate to its sales and visibility, akin to that of the Velvet Underground.

[12][13] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly has credited the album with "launching a hundred or more female alternative rockers, like Kate Pierson & Cindy Wilson of the B-52s to [sic] current thrashers like L7 and Courtney Love of Hole".

The photos were taken with an Instamatic camera on the grounds of their Tittenhurst Park estate in Berkshire by actor Daniel Richter, who lived with them and worked as their assistant at the time.

An alternate version of "Open Your Box", the B-side to the UK issue of Lennon's 1971 single "Power to the People", appears on the 1997 and 2016 reissues.