The song was subject to a U.S. radio ban shortly after its release, following allegations published in the broadcasting trade journal the Gavin Report regarding perceived drug connotations in its lyrics.

The failure of "Eight Miles High" to reach the Billboard Top 10 is usually attributed to the broadcasting ban, but some commentators have suggested the song's complexity and uncommercial nature were greater factors.

"Eight Miles High" became the Byrds' third and final U.S. Top 20 hit, and was their last release before the departure of Clark, who was the band's principal songwriter at the time.

The song's lyrics are, for the most part, about the group's flight to London in August 1965 and their accompanying English tour, as hinted at by the opening couplet: "Eight miles high and when you touch down, you'll find that it's stranger than known.

[1] According to Clark, the lyrics were primarily his creation, with a minor contribution being Crosby's line, "Rain grey town, known for its sound"—a reference to London as home to the British Invasion, which was then dominating the U.S. music charts.

[1][6][8][9][10] Clark began writing the song's lyrics on November 24, 1965, when he scribbled down some rough ideas for later development, after a discussion with guitarist Brian Jones, before the Byrds made a concert appearance supporting the Rolling Stones.

[12] John Einarson has commented that the influence of Coltrane's saxophone playing and, in particular his song "India" from the Impressions album, can be heard clearly in "Eight Miles High"—most noticeably in McGuinn's recurring twelve-string guitar solo.

[2][9][13][14] "Eight Miles High" also exhibits the influence of sitarist Ravi Shankar, particularly in the droning quality of the song's vocal melody and in McGuinn's guitar playing.

[9] In a 1966 promotional interview, which was added to the expanded CD reissue of the Fifth Dimension album, Crosby said that the song's ending made him "feel like a plane landing."

[24] Following its release, the band faced allegations of advocating the use of recreational drugs in Bill Gavin's Record Report, a weekly newsletter circulated to U.S. radio stations.

[2][1] This resulted in "Eight Miles High" being banned in a number of states within a week of the report being published, a factor which contributed to the single's failure to break into the Billboard Top 10.

"[2][9] Research analyst Mark Teehan, writing for Popular Musicology Online, has challenged the widely held view among critics, music historians and the Byrds themselves that the U.S. radio ban hurt sales of "Eight Miles High".

[23][27] Accordingly, some authors and music historians, including Eric V. D. Luft, Domenic Priore, and Dwight Rounds, have described "Eight Miles High" as being the first bona fide psychedelic rock song.

[31] However, although Kempton was the first person to use the term raga rock in print, she actually borrowed the phrase from the promotional material the Byrds' press office had supplied to accompany the "Eight Miles High" single release.

[10] In a 1968 interview for the Pop Chronicles radio documentary, McGuinn denied that the song was an example of raga rock,[8] while Crosby, speaking in 1998, dismissed the term entirely, saying "they kept trying to label us; every time we turned around, they came up with a new one ... it's a bunch of bullshit.

"[32] Nonetheless, the experimental nature of the song placed the Byrds firmly at the forefront of the burgeoning psychedelic movement, along with the Yardbirds, the Beatles, Donovan and the Rolling Stones, who were all exploring similar musical territory concurrently.

[27] Contemporary reviews for the single were mostly positive, with Billboard magazine describing the song as a "Big beat rhythm rocker with soft lyric ballad vocal and off-beat instrumental backing.

[45] "Eight Miles High" has been covered by many different bands and artists including: the Ventures, Leathercoated Minds, East of Eden, Lighthouse, Leo Kottke, Roxy Music, Ride, Stewart/Gaskin, Robyn Hitchcock, Rockfour, Les Fradkin, The Kennedys, the Postmarks[46] and Steve Hunter.

[53] Bruce Springsteen's song "Life Itself", from his 2009 album Working on a Dream, features guitar playing and production techniques reminiscent of "Eight Miles High" by the Byrds.