The album was recorded in the midst of Coltrane's residency at the Five Spot as a member of the Thelonious Monk quartet.

The personnel include Coltrane's Miles Davis bandmates, Paul Chambers on bass and Philly Joe Jones on drums, both of whom had worked before with pianist Kenny Drew.

Unlike his previous label, Blue Note paid the musicians to rehearse the music for a couple of days before the recording session.

[13] John Coltrane's next major album, Giant Steps, recorded in 1959, would break new melodic and harmonic ground in jazz, whereas Blue Train adheres to the hard bop style of the era.

[16]It had sold more than half a million copies by April 2001 and thus was certified with a gold sales certification by the Recording Industry Association of America the following year.

[7][17] In 1997, The Ultimate Blue Train was released, adding two alternate takes and enhanced content, and in 1999 a 24bit 192 kHz DVD-Audio version was issued.

In 2015, Blue Note/Universal released a Blu-ray audio edition of the album with four bonus tracks, one of which is a previously unreleased take of "Lazy Bird".