[9][10] Mick Fleetwood, the band's drummer, remembered that the house had a "distinctly bad vibe to it, as if it were haunted, which did nothing to help matters".

Buckingham played an electric guitar instead of an acoustic during these sessions so he could be in the same room as the rest of the band without worrying about audio leakage.

[12] Inspired by the drum feel of "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones, Buckingham sought to incorporate a variation of the groove in "Go Your Own Way".

"I remember watching him guide Mick (Fleetwood) as to what he wanted – he'd be so animated, like a little kid, playing these air tom fills with his curly hair flying.

"[2] Fleetwood ultimately came up with his own variation of the "Street Fighting Man" groove by playing across the tom-toms and hitting the bass drum on the middle beat.

[13] Initially, John McVie tracked a busier and bouncier bass part that gave the song "a country feel".

[10] Overdubs of Hammond B3 organ, electric and acoustic guitars, backing vocals, and assorted percussion such as the bell of a cymbal and maracas were also added to the mix.

[16] Buckingham had difficult time assembling a suitable guitar solo, so Caillat, who was away in Lake Tahoe for Christmas vacation, returned to Criteria Studios to finish the track.

Dashut, who served as a producer and engineer during these recording sessions, posited that they would not have encountered this "lucky mistake" had they mixed the song digitally.

[20] When Nicks heard the song, she demanded that Buckingham remove the line "Packing up, shacking up is all you wanna do", but he ultimately kept those lyrics.

[21] B. Mitchel Reed, a Los Angeles radio deejay in the 1970s, was underwhelmed when he first played the single on his program, telling his listeners "I don't know about that one".

He maintained that the acoustic guitar was an essential component in gluing the composition together but also believed that its entrance created confusion over the location of beat one.

[22] As soon as I came up with the acoustic part, the whole song came to life for me because it acted as a foil for the vocals and a rhythmic counterpoint...so when it comes in, you don't have a reference point for where the 'one' is, or where the beat is at all.

[23] Jeff Porcaro, the drummer for Boz Scaggs, as well as a founding member of Toto, was particularly impressed with Fleetwood's drumming on "Go Your Own Way" during live performances.

"[24] John Swenson of Rolling Stone thought that Buckingham evoked the musical sensibilities of The Byrds with the acoustic guitar work, particularly on the chorus.

He also said that Fleetwood's drumming added "a new dimension" to the song and served as an effective foil to John McVie's bass and Buckingham's acoustic guitar.

[25] Billboard said that "Go Your Own Way" adhered more to the conventions of mainstream rock than any of the singles on their Fleetwood Mac album from 1975 and felt that the song resembled the work of Jefferson Starship.

[26] Stephen Demorest of Creem magazine highlighted the song's "distinctive staggered rhythm and slicing guitar lines" and called it a superior track to "I'm So Afraid", a Buckingham composition from Fleetwood Mac's 1975 self-titled album.

"Recently, Go Your Own Way and The Chain – better known as the BBC's Formula One theme tune – have become 2am favourites for bleary-eyed twentysomethings desperate to keep a house party going.

[29] In a review of the Rumours Deluxe Edition, Steven Rosen praised Buckingham's acoustic guitar strumming and raw vocal delivery, all of which keeps the listener "riveted".

[30] Matthew Greenwald of AllMusic noted the song's folky sound, reminiscent of pre-Beatles bands like the Everly Brothers.

[39] In Fred Bronson's Billboard's Hottest Hot 100 Hits, a book that lists the top 5000 most successful songs released between July 9, 1955 and February 3, 2007 in terms of chart performance, "Go Your Own Way" ranks 4201st.

[41] In November 2023, the song was certified quadruple platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), denoting sales and streams of over 2,400,000 units.

[54] On An Evening with Fleetwood Mac, Buckingham's replacements Mike Campbell and Neil Finn shared guitar duties, while the latter also doubled up on lead vocals.

[93] In 2011, Lea Michele of the American musical comedy drama Glee sang the song on season two's "Rumours" episode.

[94] In 2022, Ben Platt and Aly & AJ performed the song on the former's Reverie Tour and during the Disneyland portions on the 2023 edition of Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve.