It was completed on December 9, 1968 at RCA studios in Los Angeles, with a horn section added to the track (arranged by Shorty Rogers).

The single's flip side, "Someday Man", was a song written by Paul Williams and Roger Nichols and produced by Bones Howe.

It was sung by Jones and recorded at the same time as Goffin and King's "A Man Without a Dream", which had appeared on the Monkees' previous album, Instant Replay (1969).

The Monkees were by now a trio (Nesmith, Micky Dolenz and Davy Jones), with Peter Tork having left in December 1968.

Nesmith later revealed that the chord progression of "Listen to the Band" was created by playing another song he wrote, "Nine Times Blue", backwards.