The Beatles recorded the song at Trident Studios in late August 1968 as a three-piece after Ringo Starr temporarily left the group out of protest at McCartney's criticism of his drumming on "Back in the U.S.S.R." and the tensions that typified the sessions for the White Album.

The song has been covered by many artists, including the Jerry Garcia Band, Ramsey Lewis and Siouxsie and the Banshees, whose version was a top-five hit in the UK in 1983.

[5] Of all the Beatles, Farrow felt closest to John Lennon and George Harrison,[6] who were assigned by the Maharishi to act as her "team buddies".

[7] In a 1980 interview, he said of "Dear Prudence": A song about Mia Farrow's sister, who seemed to go slightly barmy, meditating too long, and couldn't come out of the little hut that we were livin' in.

"[12] Farrow did not hear "Dear Prudence" before the Beatles recorded the track, although she has said that, before leaving Rishikesh, Harrison told her that they had written a song about her.

[13] Lennon wrote "Dear Prudence" using a guitar finger-picking technique that he learned from Donovan,[14] who had followed the Beatles out to Rishikesh to study Transcendental Meditation.

[18] Author Steve Turner comments that the Beatles' songwriting in Rishikesh reflected the simplicity of their environment, with the lyrics' frequent references to "birds, flowers, clouds, the sun, and the wind",[19] while Paytress finds Lennon's songs particularly evocative of "the 'slow-motion' sensibility of life on the ashram".

[24] Musicologist Walter Everett comments that, together with "Across the Universe", the song's "peaceful aura" and "ringing dronelike guitars" make it Lennon's most "Indian"-sounding composition.

"[28] Author Mark Hertsgaard finds "Dear Prudence" typical of Lennon's work in that it "transcends its origins" to provide a wider message.

He says that the lyrics further an idea first espoused by Lennon in "Nowhere Man" in 1965, namely: "Don't hide from life, you have reason to smile, wake up and play your part in the grand scheme of things.

"[29] According to music critic Kenneth Womack, "Prudence" serves as one of the many literary figures the Beatles created for the White Album, along with Sexy Sadie (representing the Maharishi), Bungalow Bill, Rocky Raccoon and other characters named in the titles of the songs they wrote while in Rishikesh.

He likens the collection of these figures in the context of the double album to Impressionistic art, whereby the diverse elements are brought together to form a unifying song cycle.

"[38] In his book Revolution: The Making of the Beatles' White Album, David Quantick writes that the "cynicism" in Lennon's delivery reflects his disillusion with the Maharishi in light of rumours alleging that their teacher had made sexual advances towards Mia Farrow.

[41][42] This period was marked by tension and hostility within the group,[43] which had led to Ringo Starr temporarily leaving the band during the recent sessions for McCartney's song "Back in the U.S.S.R."[44][45] On 28 August, the three remaining Beatles completed the basic track for "Dear Prudence", comprising various guitar parts by Lennon and Harrison,[46] including Lennon's finger-picked electric rhythm part, and McCartney on drums in place of Starr.

[41][nb 2] The following day, McCartney added piano over the end portion of the song[25] and, according to Beatles historian Mark Lewisohn, a brief snippet of flugelhorn.

[41] Music journalist Robert Fontenot says that although some commentators list this sound as a flugelhorn, it is in fact Harrison's lead guitar, played on his Gibson Les Paul.

[54] Its introduction was cross-faded with the sounds of a jet aircraft landing which conclude the previous track, "Back in the U.S.S.R."[55][56] On the Beatles' 1967–1970 compilation 2023 edition, the crossfade is cut off, and the track begins abruptly after the start of the original recording, the song starts cleanly, with no jet aircraft landing effects.

He also said that, in expanding the narrative to encompass a "pantheistic vision of the world's beauty", Lennon's song served as "one of the few positive statements" he offered from his visit to Rishikesh.

"[27] David Quantick writes that, given Lennon's falling out with the Maharishi in April 1968, the lyric to "Dear Prudence" instead became "an invitation to tune in or drop out".

"[9] In a 2013 interview, she said she had been relieved to listen to it for the first time and discover that, unlike Lennon's "negative" sentiments about his Rishikesh experience in the White Album tracks "Sexy Sadie" and "The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", the song was generous in spirit.

[13] Farrow titled her 2015 autobiography after the track[6] and, as of 2013, ran the Dear Prudence Foundation, raising funds to help educate people in meditation.

[71] Further to his view on the "spookiness" evident in the Beatles' 1968 recording, Quantick says that its "ambience [was] so at odds with the floaty hippie vibe of India" that this characteristic "goes a long way toward explaining why the 1980s punk/psychedelic/Goth band Siouxsie and the Banshees were able to cover the song so successfully, bringing out its buried but implicit sun-blinded sense of menace".

[28] Among the other artists who have recorded "Dear Prudence" are Ramsey Lewis, for his 1968 album Mother Nature's Son; Doug Parkinson in Focus, who had a top-five hit in Australia with the song;[73] Gábor Szabó; the Five Stairsteps (#66/49 in USA, #65 in Canada); Katfish, whose version peaked at number 53 on the US Billboard Hot 100; and Leslie West in 1976.

"Dear Prudence" was also performed by Joe Anderson, Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess and Dana Fuchs for the soundtrack to Julie Taymor's 2007 film Across the Universe.