[5] The album contains five "vintage" King songs from the 1950s and 1960s: "Ten Long Years", "Three O'Clock Blues", "Help the Poor", "Days of Old" and "When My Heart Beats Like a Hammer".

[3] Other standards include the Big Bill Broonzy-penned "Key to the Highway" (which Clapton had recorded in the early 1970s with Derek and the Dominos), Chicago pianist Maceo Merriweather's "Worried Life Blues", a cover of Isaac Hayes's composition "Hold On, I'm Comin'" originally a 1966 single for Sam & Dave, and "Come Rain or Come Shine" from the 1946 musical St. Louis Woman.

Two of the songs, "I Wanna Be" and "Marry You", previously appeared on guitarist Doyle Bramhall II's 1999 solo album, Jellycream.

The shot was taken by Robert Sebree from a camera truck with a two seat jib while Clapton drove around the Warner Brothers Pictures backlot.

[6] Louis Gerber wrote in Cosmopolis that Riding with the King "goes directly to the heart and soul" and is a "refreshing and sensational album, the best in the popular music genre since the release of Santana's Supernatural".

[4] Dave Ferman wrote in the Mobile Register that while the album was a "great idea well-executed", it is not as good as it could have been.

[2] Nicole Bode wrote in the Columbia Daily Spectator that on the album, King takes Clapton "deeper into blues territory than he has ever gone alone".

[9] Riding with the King peaked at number one on the Billboard Top Blues Albums in 2000,[10] and was certified 2× Multi-Platinum in the United States.

[14] The reissue featured two previously unreleased tracks, "Rollin' and Tumblin'", the video of which was released on Clapton's YouTube channel on May 21, 2020, and a cover of “Let Me Love You Baby” written by Willie Dixon.