Apple Records released
The Beatles on 22 November 1968, with "Dear Prudence" sequenced as the second track on side one of the double LP. Its introduction was
cross-faded with the sounds of a jet aircraft landing which conclude the previous track, "Back in the U.S.S.R." On the Beatles'
1967–1970 compilation 2023 edition, the crossfade is cut off, and the track begins abruptly after the start of the original recording, the song starts cleanly, with no jet aircraft landing effects. In a contemporary review of the album,
Record Mirrors writer said: "A shock to my mind was the second track opening with the old folk clawhammer pick done on an open tuned electric guitar. John sings 'Dear Prudence' as instrumentation fades in and out from wistful quiet to booming intensity." Writing more recently in
The Beatles Diary,
Peter Doggett commented that it was "strange" that the Beatles chose to begin the album with two songs recorded without Starr. He also said that, in expanding the narrative to encompass a "
pantheistic vision of the world's beauty", Lennon's song served as "one of the few positive statements" he offered from his visit to Rishikesh. Tim Riley views it as a "key Beatles song about nature" and praises the band's ensemble playing. He says that, while Lennon regularly wrote about childhood and nature, "nowhere else does he sound as composed as he does here, as infatuated with the innocence he's singing about ... It counts amongst Lennon's finest songs." David Quantick writes that, given Lennon's falling out with the Maharishi in April 1968, the lyric to "Dear Prudence" instead became "an invitation to tune in or drop out". He detects an eeriness in the track that would have fitted with the implications evident in the phrase ''A Doll's House
, which was the intended title for The Beatles''.
Julian Lennon named "Dear Prudence" as one of his favourite songs written by his father. Lennon is said to have selected it as one of his favourite songs by the Beatles. sold at
auction for US$19,500. In
the Rutles' 1978 parody of the Beatles' history,
All You Need Is Cash, the song was parodied as "Let's Be Natural". In 2010,
Rolling Stone ranked "Dear Prudence" at number 63 on the magazine's list of "The Beatles' 100 Greatest Songs". In a similar list compiled by
Mojo in 2006, the song appeared at number 44. Farrow has said she was "flattered" by the Beatles' gesture in creating "Dear Prudence" for her, adding: "It was a beautiful thing to have done." In a 2013 interview, she said she had been relieved to listen to it for the first time and discover that, unlike Lennon's "negative" sentiments about his Rishikesh experience in the White Album tracks "
Sexy Sadie" and "
The Continuing Story of Bungalow Bill", the song was generous in spirit. Farrow titled her 2015 autobiography after the track and, as of 2013, ran the Dear Prudence Foundation, raising funds to help educate people in meditation. Asked what she thought of "Dear Prudence" in an interview with
Rolling Stone in 2015, Farrow said: "It epitomized what the Sixties were about in many ways. What it's saying is very beautiful; it's very positive. I think it's an important song. I thought it was one of their least popular and more obscure songs. I feel that it does capture that essence of the course, that slightly exotic part of being in India where we went through that silence and meditation." ==Cover versions==