The following year, along with "Run So Far" and "That Kind of Woman",[4] "Cheer Down" was among the four compositions that Harrison offered to Eric Clapton for inclusion on the latter's album Journeyman.

[7] The song was again co-produced by Jeff Lynne,[8] who had served the same role on Cloud Nine, in addition to forming the Traveling Wilburys with Harrison and Petty.

The completed recording features a long closing slide guitar solo that author Simon Leng admires for its fluency and variation.

In Leng's description, during this section, Harrison's playing "runs the gamut from Indian blues chops to two-part countermelodies and sweeping Pete Drake jaunts through the octaves".

[17] Although Best of Dark Horse is no longer in print, "Cheer Down" was included on the 2009 career-spanning compilation Let It Roll: Songs by George Harrison.

[28][29] For this performance – which was Harrison's only full-length concert as a solo artist in Britain[30] – Petty's lead guitarist in the Heartbreakers, Mike Campbell, replaced Clapton.