"[2] Self-help book authors Pete Forantale and Bill Ayres regard the song as giving the listener permission to meditate, reflect and daydream.
[4][5][6] Taylor recalls having written the song at his home in Martha's Vineyard during the late spring with the sun shining in.
[5] Taylor biographer Mark Robowsky similarly notes that although the lyrics are generally optimistic, the optimism is undercut by the line "Nobody knows how we got to the top of the hill/But since we're on our way down, we might as well enjoy the ride.
Music critic Robert Christgau rates the song as evoking "comparison with betters on the order of ... Randy Newman.
"[11] Tom Waseleski of Beaver County Times pointed to "Secret O' Life" as a prime example of the fact that Taylor is an introspective writer and is at his best when he allows his songs to reflect that.
[20] Allmusic critic Scott Yarrow regarded the song as one of the weakest on her 1998 album 70: A Seventieth Birthday Celebration but colleague Richard S. Ginelli, reviewing her 1999 album Songs from the Girl Singer: A Musical Autobiography described it as an "affectionately sung capsule of philosophy.
"[21][22] Shirley Horn recorded a jazz version"Secret O' Life" for the 2001 album Sketches of James.
[29] Scott Grimes, in the role of Lieutenant Gordon Malloy, performed the song on the season 3 finale, Future Unknown, of comedy-drama science fiction television series The Orville: New Horizons, first aired August 4, 2022.