The success of the album's format inspired Phillips to continue with the series, and put out the second instalment, Private Parts & Pieces II: Back to the Pavilion, in 1980.

[1] The main reason for the album was that Phillips had learned from his manager Tony Smith that musician and producer Brian Eno had formed a record label primarily focused on instrumental music.

[2] Phillips felt particularly lucky with Arista agreeing to put out the album as he deemed it "the best of the home recordings" with tracks that were "simple, a bit rough at the edges" with substandard presentation but were strong in character and emotion.

[3] Whereas before Phillips gave reasons why not to include a track on an album he was making, producing Private Parts & Pieces made the excuses no longer matter.

[1] The earliest pieces were put down on a Revox 2-track tape machine before Phillips installed a TEAC 4-track with added Dolby noise reduction.

[2] The album's artwork was designed and illustrated by artist Peter Cross, who depicted a soldier going off to war in the winter and returning home during a summer.

Phillips originally intended to have Private Parts & Pieces as a one-off album concept, but it was enough of a success for him to continue with the series featuring tracks "not on large scale" and "homely".

The 1990 CD reissue of Private Parts & Pieces included two new, solo recordings of material that date from Phillips' time in Genesis.

On 11 September 2015, Esoteric Recordings released a 5-disc box set containing the first four volumes in the Private Parts & Pieces series and a fifth disc of previously unreleased material.