The founding line-up of Genesis consisted of guitarist Anthony Phillips, bassist Mike Rutherford, lead vocalist Peter Gabriel, keyboardist Tony Banks, and drummer Chris Stewart, all pupils of Charterhouse School in Godalming, Surrey.

The five had played in the school's two active bands; Rutherford and Phillips were in Anon while Gabriel, Banks, and Stewart made up Garden Wall.

[11] This included five songs from Phillips and Rutherford: "Don't Want You Back", "Try a Little Sadness", "That's Me", "Listen on Five", and "Patricia", an instrumental, plus one from Gabriel and Banks, "She Is Beautiful".

[15] The second was sent to former Charterhouse pupil Jonathan King who had scored commercial success as a singer-songwriter and producer with his UK top five single "Everyone's Gone to the Moon" in 1965, and therefore seemed a natural choice.

[17] These early sessions took place between August and December 1967 at Regent Sound Studios on Denmark Street, London, with the intent on releasing them as singles.

[18] The four tracks put down were new arrangements of "She's Beautiful" and "Try a Little Sadness", with "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet" and "The Image Blown Out", the latter ultimately rejected from the album.

[14][15][17][19] King noticed the band's tendency to expand and complicate their arrangements, which he disliked and suggested they stick to straightforward pop songs.

[22] The song was recorded at Regent Sound studio A in December 1967, with a section arranged and conducted by Arthur Greenslade added later in production.

You start dreaming of becoming a rock star and then, all of a sudden, it's gone... That said, I wasn't upset for long because they gave me 300 pounds [equivalent to £6,572 in 2023], which at that time was a massive amount of money.

[28] They would in fact end up with a surfeit of material; songs which were intended for the album but left off due to lack of space include "The Magic of Time", "Build Me a Mountain", and "Visions of Angels".

[32] "Window" is a rare example of significant collaboration between the pairs; the music was composed on the roof of Thomas's house by Phillips and Rutherford, and the lyrics were written by Gabriel.

[37][13] The material put down, Greenslade and Lou Warburton then added more string and horn arrangements to one stereo channel while mixing the band's performance on the other.

[45] Prior to its release, Decca discovered that an American act had also called themselves Genesis and asked the band to change its name to avoid confusion.

King reached a compromise so the band's name would be omitted from the sleeve, leaving the album's title written in gold text in a Gothic style in order to evoke mystery when presented in music shops.

[15] King later said that Decca was unable to promote the album effectively and get the exposure it needed to succeed, leaving him to carry out much of the work himself which he lacked enough experience in at the time.

[13] Noel Gallagher is a fan of the album, saying, "I became obsessed with early Genesis" despite being a frequent critic of the group's later work, particularly the Phil Collins-led era.

[39] In addition, Genesis had fulfilled their contractual obligation with Decca with the release of "Where the Sour Turns to Sweet", and neither they nor King were interested in renewing the deal.

Their residency at Ronnie Scott's club in Soho, London caught the attention of Tony Stratton Smith who signed them to his label, Charisma Records.

[20] Some of the tapes had been in storage in Phillips's attic, and he initially pleaded with the group not to release them due to what he considered poor guitar work.

[50] Although King initially had From Genesis to Revelation licensed to Decca Records on a short-term basis, he continues to hold the rights to the album and has re-released it several times under a variety of titles.