[1][2] After completing the soundtrack to the HandMade production Shanghai Surprise, he started work on a new album, with co-producer Jeff Lynne,[3] in January 1987.

[6] Music lecturer Ian Inglis described the theme of the song as "a declaration of altruistic love and a promise of a blissful future".

[8] Simon Leng, writing in his book While My Guitar Gently Weeps, describes the music as "harmonically simple" and propelled by a "pounding rock beat".

[9] Leng identifies the song's raison d'être as the interaction between Harrison's slide guitar and Eric Clapton's "thick-toned Stratocaster".

[9] He describes this interplay as representing a "mature conclusion" in the guitarists' long musical relationship, and a performance that "speaks of empathy, not gun-slinging competitiveness".

[9] Cloud Nine was released on Harrison's Dark Horse record label on 2 November 1987, with the title song sequenced as the opening track.

[11] In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, David Wild described the album as an "expertly crafted, endlessly infectious record" and said that the title track was "a surprisingly hard-edged midtempo rocker that features some tastily restrained riffing from Harrison and Eric Clapton".