Retrospective commentators dispute the song's level of thematic cohesion with the others on Village Green; some suggest a lack of relation to the album's themes, while others contend it fits in with notions of escapism and a contrasting of rural and urban life.

[2] Author Andy Miller writes that while Davies's suggested Motown connection is difficult to discern, it has a slight resemblance to the Four Tops' 1965 single "It's the Same Old Song", particularly the melody and "the snap of Mick Avory's snare drum".

[4] Author Johnny Rogan writes Davies may have written the song for a groupie, but adds that the singer's "delicate and polite chastising" makes it an unlikely possibility.

[10] It also includes a Mellotron – a tape-loop-based keyboard instrument – played by either session keyboardist Nicky Hopkins or Davies to duplicate the sound of a string section.

[11] Davies mixed the recording quickly in August 1968, but remixed it in late October after the release of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society was delayed by two months.

[17] In the song's lyrics, the singer politely chastises a female listener for failing to distinguish between stardom and real-life and further warns her about the risks of city life.

[23] Davies included "Starstruck" on both the twelve- and fifteen-track editions of The Kinks Are the Village Green Preservation Society, sequenced on the second side in both cases.

The film depicts them walking around Waterlow Park in Highgate on a cold day and is similar in style to the photographs taken for Village Green's album cover in mid-August.

[33] In the US, Reprise Records issued "Starstruck" as Village Green's lead single on 8 January 1969, again backed with "Picture Book", though its release may have been delayed until the 15th.