Stills said that he liked parts of this demo version of "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" better than the released version; the song and other demos of early Crosby, Stills and Nash songs were released commercially on the album Just Roll Tape.

In 1969, she was appearing in the New York Shakespeare Festival musical production of Peer Gynt and had fallen in love with her co-star Stacy Keach, eventually leaving Stills for him.

The third section features poetic lyrics ("chestnut brown canary, ruby-throated sparrow").

Stills has said that he intentionally made the final stanzas unexpected and difficult, even using a foreign language for the lyrics, "just to make sure nobody would understand it".

The album "Live at Fillmore East, 1969," released in 2024, opens with an acoustic version of the song.

[12] Writing for The New York Times in 1969, Robert Christgau suggested that while "Stills has become such a sophisticated guitarist that many of his lines lack any straight-on rhythmic compulsion", his "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is "a structural triumph which could never have been brought off by a more Dionysiac spirit.

"I love the intricacies of the harmonies and Stills's guitar work," remarked Slipknot front-man Corey Taylor.

"[14] "Weird Al" Yankovic includes a parody ("Mission Statement") on his 2014 album Mandatory Fun; the lyrics are corporate buzzwords strung together in such a way as to be ultimately nonsensical.

The final section has been parodied numerous times, notably in Frank Zappa's compositions "Billy the Mountain" and "Magdalena" on The Mothers of Invention's album Just Another Band From L.A.