It was Franklin's first release under her contract with the label, following her departure from Columbia Records after nine unsuccessful jazz standard albums, and marked a commercial breakthrough for her, becoming her first top 10 album in the United States, reaching number 2 on the Billboard 200.

[5][6] After an altercation broke out between Franklin's then husband, Ted White, trumpeter Ken Laxton and FAME studios owner/producer Rick Hall, producer Jerry Wexler arranged to continue recording the LP at Atlantic Studios, New York.

[7][5] The B-side, "Do Right Woman, Do Right Man", was unfinished at FAME studios as the session ended abruptly.

Members of the Muscle Shoals rhythm section were flown to New York to complete "Do Right Woman" and a number of other tracks (including "Respect").

The foundation track of "Do Right Woman" recorded at Muscle Shoals and the later tracks added at Atlantic's New York studio are slightly out of tune with each other: Producer Chips Moman regretted that the piano was faintly sharp.

She seemed so much a force of nature it's strange to recall that this was actually her tenth album ..."[18] In the obituary for Aretha Franklin, Rolling Stone made this comment about I Never Loved a Man the Way I Love You: "It puts the emphasis not just on the great songs, or the amazing music, but on the person speaking them, her world, her story and whatever journey she's on in life.