A love song in the style of a soul/R&B ballad, it was written by Harrison in December 1973, towards the end of his marriage to Pattie Boyd and while he was having an affair with Maureen Starkey, the wife of his former Beatles bandmate Ringo Starr.
Having first considered the song for his 1974 release Dark Horse, Harrison recorded "Can't Stop Thinking About You" in Los Angeles in May 1975 for his so-called "soul album", Extra Texture.
Some authors view its inclusion on the latter release as an obvious attempt by Harrison to commercialise the album, in response to the harsh critical reception afforded Dark Horse and his 1974 North American tour.
[7] In her 2009 memoir, music-industry insider Chris O'Dell recalls spending the 1973 Christmas holiday with the couple and learning that Harrison was having an affair with Maureen Starkey, the wife of his fellow ex-Beatle Ringo Starr.
[23] When discussing the song with Paul Gambaccini on BBC Radio 1, in September 1975,[24] Harrison remarked on the "melodramatic" melody over the verses (or "middle bits"), likening it to the extravagant musical styles of Al Jolson and Mario Lanza.
[4] Even though the Harrison–Maureen Starkey liaison had become common knowledge by late 1974[25] – when Harrison released his album Dark Horse and mounted a North American tour with Ravi Shankar[26] – some critics later interpreted the song as being directed at Boyd,[27] who had left him for his friend Eric Clapton in July that same year.
[34] With that album and the accompanying tour having received negative reviews from Rolling Stone and other music publications over the winter of 1974–75,[35] NME critic Bob Woffinden noted an "eagerness" on Harrison's part to "redeem himself" with Extra Texture.
[37][nb 3] Leng maintains that this loss of prestige influenced Harrison's choosing to include three obviously commercial tracks that were "designed to rehabilitate [his] pop status":[41] the 1971 Ronnie Spector outtake "You";[42] a tribute to soul singer Smokey Robinson, "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)";[43] and "Can't Stop Thinking About You".
[53] In the same radio interview with Gambaccini, Harrison claimed that with his lead vocal on "Can't Stop Thinking About You", he was attempting to imitate John Lennon, adding: "It was hard to sing that first chorus, I tell you.
[74] Tom Doyle, writing for Mojo magazine, describes Harrison as "sound[ing] depressed, if R&B-soulful" on Extra Texture, with "Can't Stop Thinking About You" "pre-echoing the boozy laments" of John Martyn's 1980 album Grace and Danger.
[17] Noting that "Can't Stop Thinking About You" lacks the compositional strengths that make such repetition an "effective musical device", Inglis concludes: "what might have been intended as a pop anthem only manages to become an inconsequential album track.
Here he is positively desperate to reach for insignificance ..."[20] Leng describes the track as "pop-soul fluff" and adds: "The song was obviously written to be a single, which makes it doubly puzzling that it wasn't released as one.