It was written in Bermuda in June 1980, after several attempts by Lennon to call his wife, Yoko Ono, who remained in New York.

[3] The lyrics acknowledge that the relationship is in trouble, and Lennon admits that he has hurt his wife, but he also resents the fact that she won't let him live down his mistakes.

[4] And Lennon has confirmed that although the song was originally inspired by his feelings over the phone call, it also expresses his feelings about losing Yoko Ono during their 18-month separation (i.e., his lost weekend) as well as other losses, including the loss of his mother, which was the subject of several songs on John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band.

[5] Lennon recorded a home demo of I'm Losing You, called Solitude, at some point before or after Stranger's Room.

[7] Producer Jack Douglas originally suggested that Lennon use Cheap Trick as the backing band to play on the song.

[2][3][7] A version was recorded on 12 August 1980 with Cheap Trick's guitarist Rick Nielsen and drummer Bun E. Carlos backing Lennon.

[2][3][7] The Cheap Trick version was eventually released on John Lennon Anthology, albeit without an overdubbed guitar part played by Nielsen.

[1] Rock journalist Paul Du Noyer considers "I'm Losing You" to be proof "that Double Fantasy is a work of greater emotional complexity than many of its critics are prepared to admit", and gives lie to the notion that Lennon and Ono used the album to "paint a falsely benign portrait of their marriage".

"[9] Authors Ben Urish and Ken Bielen call "I'm Losing You" the "toughest" song on Double Fantasy.

[6] Of the Cheap Trick version released on Anthology they claim that "the take is quite good, and without the production gloss of the album, it roars without sounding incomplete, making it an obvious highlight of the 1998 collection".

Corinne Bailey Rae covered the song on the 2007 charity album Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign to Save Darfur.