[3] "Mother Popcorn" has a beat and structure similar to Brown's 1967 hit "Cold Sweat", but a faster tempo and a greater amount of rhythmic activity (including much agitated 16th note movement from the horn section) give it a more frenetic quality than the earlier song.

Critic Robert Christgau singled out "Mother Popcorn" as the turning point in Brown's funk music in which he "began to concern himself more and more exclusively with rhythmic distinctions.

On January 13, 1969 Brown recorded a song at the RCA Studios in Los Angeles, California under the title "You Got to Have a Mother for Me".

It had most of the same lyrics as "Mother Popcorn" but a completely different instrumental component, and was rejected for release as a single in favor of the later recording, which retained the earlier song title as a subtitle.

It was also covered by Frank Black on the 1998 tribute album James Brown Super Bad @ 65, and by The Blues Brothers in a medley with "Do You Love Me" on Made in America.