Recorded at the group's Apple Studio in London in late January 1969, the song includes a lap steel guitar part played by John Lennon.

The five-bar introduction deviates from the pattern due to its length and the inclusion of what musicologist Alan Pollack terms a "V-of-V" chord – namely, E7 in the home key.

[25] The film project, which became known as Get Back and eventually Let It Be,[26] formed part of the band's proposed return to live performance for the first time since their 1966 North American tour.

[37] In their study of the tapes from the Get Back project, authors Doug Sulpy and Ray Schweighardt write that the Beatles rehearsed "For You Blue" half-heartedly, amid heated discussions about their future and with Harrison in disagreement with McCartney over the proposed concert.

[38] Adding to Harrison's dissatisfaction since the start of the Twickenham rehearsals, his compositions "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down" and "Hear Me Lord"[12] had received little enthusiasm from Lennon and McCartney.

[42] He suggested that the song required an acoustic arrangement akin to skiffle or, citing slide guitarist Son House as an example, traditional country blues.

[45][46] As a condition of Harrison's return to the group,[48][49] the Beatles abandoned the idea of a concert and relocated to their Apple Studio in central London, on 22 January,[50] to record an album of some of the songs rehearsed at Twickenham.

[56] Like Harris, author Elliot Huntley considers that Harrison deliberately refrained from pushing for the inclusion of his best material, believing that his bandmates would not do justice to songs such as "All Things Must Pass", "Let It Down" and the similarly overlooked "Isn't It a Pity" and "Something".

[72][nb 5] When Phil Spector remixed "For You Blue" for inclusion on the Let It Be album, on 30 March 1970,[74] he added a spoken introduction by Lennon in the style of a newspaper headline: "Queen Says 'No' to Pot-Smoking FBI Member.

[83] In the US, "For You Blue" gained sufficient radio airplay for Billboard to list the two songs together, as a double-sided hit,[84] when the record topped the magazine's Hot 100 chart.

[94] Among contemporary reviews of Let It Be, Alan Smith of the NME described "For You Blue" as "another strong one from George, a whispery chunky rocker ...'Elmore James,' he calls out at one point, 'got nothin' on this baby!

[97] In a 2003 review for Mojo, John Harris highlighted "For You Blue" as one of the tracks that remained true to McCartney's original concept for a "return to the group's beginnings" with the Get Back project.

[99] Among Beatles biographers, Ian MacDonald dismisses the song as a "forgettable twelve-bar",[63] while Mark Hertsgaard terms it "a slight blues boogie" and considers that Harrison would have been better served on the album by the superior "All Things Must Pass" and "Let It Down".

[100] Walter Everett writes that the "promise" offered in Harrison's acoustic guitar introduction remains unfulfilled, such that the principal interest lies in "Lennon's only lap-steel performance with the Beatles, one that seems both clumsy and polished at the same time".

While remarking on the contrast between the song's upbeat and optimistic qualities and the tense atmosphere within the band in January 1969, O'Toole likens the performance to "the four sitting in a living room, just jamming for fun".

[2] Like Harris, Justin Gerber of Consequence of Sound considers "For You Blue" to be in keeping with the group's intended back-to-basics approach, although he pairs it with "I Me Mine" as Harrison compositions that are "not bad, but pale in comparison to his offerings on [the White Album]".

[102] Pitchfork's Mark Richardson admires the song's "prickly rhythmic drive" and groups it with tracks such as "Two of Us" and "Get Back" as examples of how Let It Be still contains quality material even though "little ... feels consequential to the Beatles' legacy".

[105] A live version, featuring solos by Robben Ford, Emil Richards and Willie Weeks – on guitar, percussive bells and bass, respectively[106] – appeared on the disc accompanying Songs by George Harrison, a limited-edition illustrated book published by Genesis Publications in 1988.

[114] Dhani was accompanied by Blake Mills, Aaron Embry and Jim Keltner,[113] the last of whom also played drums on Harrison's 1974 live version of the song[115] and on McCartney's performance in 2002.