Johnson also used some lyrics from "Flying Crow Blues" (1932) by the Shreveport Home Wreckers (a duo of Oscar "Buddy" Woods and Ed Schaffer) for the final verse of "Love in Vain".

[5] Sonny Boy Williamson II recorded a song with a similar title, "All My Love in Vain", but different lyrics.

[6] AllMusic's Thomas Ward describes the song as "heartbreakingly potent coming from an artist of Johnson's calibre".

Never has Johnson's guitar been so subtle, so much in the background – the song's success is from the artist's longing vocal, and as such it's devastatingly bleak.

[10] The original single version was finally reissued (along with the alternate) by Columbia on the box set The Complete Recordings (1990).

[14] Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards recalled: For a time we thought the songs that were on that first album [King of the Delta Blues] were the only recordings (Robert Johnson had) made, and then suddenly around '67 or '68 up comes this second (bootleg) collection that included "Love in Vain".

In 2000, the court held that, according to US law, the songs were not in the public domain and that legal title belonged to the Estate of Robert Johnson and its successors.

An album review in The Guardian noted, "A major highlight is the echoing, gothic account of Johnson's 'Love in Vain'.

[21] Keith Richards commented, "Finally someone has captured the central feel of this master musician and his times, and that man is Alan Greenberg.