[9] According to his friend Pete Shotton, when Lennon played him the acetate of "Doctor Robert", "he seemed beside himself with glee over the prospect of millions of record buyers innocently singing along.

[3][10] Author Barry Miles identified him as Robert Freymann, a New York doctor known for dispensing vitamin B-12 shots laced with amphetamines to wealthy clientele.

[11] Aged around 60 in 1966, Freymann was a German-born Manhattan physician known to New York's artists and wealthier citizens for his vitamin B-12 injections, which also featured liberal doses of amphetamine.

[24][25] The band achieved a satisfactory basic track after seven takes, with a line-up comprising Lennon on rhythm guitar, McCartney on bass, Harrison on maracas, and Ringo Starr on drums.

[6][21] Harrison then overdubbed lead guitar, treated with automatic double tracking (ADT) and fed through a Leslie speaker to enhance the sound,[6] and Lennon added harmonium over the two bridges.

[35] Author Shawn Levy describes Revolver as pop music's "first true drug album" rather than merely a "record with some druggy insinuations", and he attributes this especially to Lennon's contributions.

[36] In November, artist Alan Aldridge created a cartoon illustration of "Doctor Robert" and three other Revolver tracks to accompany a feature article on the Beatles in Woman's Mirror magazine.

According to Aldridge, Lennon told him that he had "got it wrong, though" in depicting Dr Robert as a physician concerned with the human anatomy; instead, he was a "New York doctor who sold speed".

He highlights the combination of Lennon's "caustic vocal", McCartney's "huckstering harmony in fourths" and Harrison's "double-tracked guitar, with its unique blend of sitar and country-and-western".

[41] Reviewing the album for Mojo in 2002, Charles Shaar Murray grouped "Doctor Robert" with "And Your Bird Can Sing", "She Said She Said" and "I Want to Tell You" as guitar-based tracks that "glisten" with "glorious cascades of jangle".