[2] Shortly after its 1970 release on the Reprise Records label, it was renamed If You Could Read My Mind when the song of that title reached #1 on the RPM Top Singles chart in Canada and #5 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US.

A small number of vinyl copies of the album contain no title on the front cover.

This is because the cover was originally supposed to be just a picture of Lightfoot, but it was then thought that stating the title would increase the album's sales.

One rarity of note is "The Pony Man" appears on the Warner Brothers loss leader Schlagers!

In his retrospective Allmusic review, critic Jim Newsom praised the album, writing "While future albums would begin to drift away from the folky acoustic timbres of this one, the beauty and simplicity of Sit Down Young Stranger make it a timeless recording.