"Ebeneezer Goode" was one of the most controversial UK number-one hits of the 1990s due to its perceived oblique endorsement of recreational drug use, and it was initially banned by the BBC.

It has been claimed the single was eventually withdrawn after the band were hounded by the British tabloid press,[3] though, according to The Shamen themselves, it was deleted while at number one due to its long chart run "messing up our release schedule".

The "A great philosopher once wrote..." sample at the start of the song is Malcolm McDowell from Lindsay Anderson's 1973 film O Lucky Man!

Pan-European magazine Music & Media said the song "is a thinly disguised tribute to the drug XTC, although some might think it's about nice chocolates".

They added, "Whatever the moralists may say – 'naughty, naughty' like the lyrics [sic] in the intro – it's a brilliantly constructed pop song with both radio and club appeal as proved before by other Euro-crossover hits such as 'Move Any Mountain' and 'Love Sex Intelligence'.

[9] In 2017, Mixmag ranked "Ebeneezer Goode" number four in their list of "10 of the Best Songs Celebrating Ecstasy", writing, "There'll never be another group like The Shamen, Scottish psychedelic evangelists fronted by a north London geezer (Mr C) who hit the top of the charts with an arch ditty about eccies.

[5] Due to the use of flashing images in the video, some TV music channels make epilepsy warnings.

When the Shamen appeared on BBC1's Top of the Pops, Mr C was expected to tone down the song due to its being broadcast.