Later that same year, English singer Joe Cocker released a slower version of the song on his album I Can Stand a Little Rain.

Although he remains uncredited by the publisher as of 2023, several sources assert that Dennis Wilson of the Beach Boys assisted Preston in completing the song by co-writing the lyrics and modifying part of the melody at a contemporaneous party.

"[5] The composition interpolates part of Preston's 1969 song "Let Us All Get Together (Right Now)",[6] which he wrote with soul singer Doris Troy.

[7] According to Beach Boys biographer Jon Stebbins, although Dennis Wilson is not credited as a writer, he helped Preston finish writing "You Are So Beautiful".

[12] Marc Lee of The Daily Telegraph noted the song's contemplative beginning, accompanied only by piano, followed by "lush strings" which "sweep in and carry [Cocker] off into passionate ecstasies".

[13] In 2016, the original recording of the song by Joe Cocker released in 1974 on the A&M label was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.