It was written by Christine McVie for her boyfriend at the time, the Beach Boys' drummer Dennis Wilson.
"[2] Biographer Jon Stebbins characterized the song as McVie's "last declaration of love" toward Wilson.
[5] Writing for Rolling Stone, John Milward highlighted McVie's vocal delivery on the song's opening line, "I'm out of my mind", and drew a lyrical parallel to "Over My Head".
[7][8] In 2009, musician Daniel Lopatin (credited as "sunsetcorp") reworked "Only Over You" as a hypnagogic pop music video titled "angel".
[9] The lyrics "Angel please don't go, I miss you when you go" were slowed down and looped with a phaser effect applied to certain phrases.