Recorded at the Toronto Rock and Roll Revival festival, it was the first live album released by any member of the Beatles separately or together.

Toronto rock promoters John Brower and Kenny Walker organised a festival held at Varsity Stadium in Toronto on 13 September 1969, around the notion of a revival of rock and roll stars from the 1950s, booking Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis, Fats Domino, Bo Diddley, and Gene Vincent.

[6][7][8] Brower readily agreed, but since Lennon did not actually have a new group, he quickly began making phone calls to potential members to accompany himself and Yoko Ono.

Bassist Klaus Voormann and drummer Alan White soon agreed to perform,[6][10] along with their assistants, Anthony Fawcett, Terry Doran, and Jill and Dan Richter.

[11][12] The group was scheduled to fly to Toronto on 12 September, the day before the concert,[13] but Lennon, Ono, and Clapton were late to arrive at the airport.

[16] Before the start of the Plastic Ono Band's performance, they were introduced by Kim Fowley,[5] and Lennon said to the crowd that the group were going to play only songs that they actually knew.

[nb 1][17] "Cold Turkey", presented as "the newest song that John wrote" by Ono, had Lennon reading the lyrics off a clip-board.

[5] Ono selected a song that was to be B-side of "Cold Turkey," "Don't Worry Kyoko (Mummy's Only Looking for Her Hand in the Snow)", which also had its premiere at the festival.

[13][19] Towards the end of Ono's performance, the audience began to boo and whistle, and the band departed the stage leaving their guitars and bass to resonate until Mal Evans turned off the amplifiers.

Lennon and Ono made a deal with Pennebaker to license their portion of the show for record, in exchange for rights to include their appearance.

[21] Lennon recalled in an interview in December 1980 that he had to persuade Capitol to distribute the album: "They said 'This is garbage, we're not going to put it out with her screaming on one side and you doing this sort of live stuff.'

No wonder you see many used copies of the LP with worn A-sides and clean, unplayed B-sides – and Yoko's "art" is just as irritating today as it was in 1969.

Perry Farrell of Jane's Addiction echoed similar feelings, stating that Ono's sound experimentations were a cornerstone of his musical education.

[29] Music author Chuck Eddy wrote that despite Clapton's sporadically "really loud" playing, side one's covers were rendered "quaint" by the Flying Lizards' versions ten years later.

However, Eddy believed Lennon's "Yer Blues", which features noisier feedback "than the LP's start and end combined", was the album's most disquieting moment.

[13] Ono, with the help of Rob Stevens from Quad Recording,[13] supervised a remix of Live Peace in Toronto 1969 for its compact disc issue,[nb 6][34] released on 1 May 1995.