Gregg Allman penned the song in late 1967. He had previously struggled to create any songs with substance, and "Melissa" was among the first that survived after nearly 300 attempts to write a song he deemed good enough. Staying at the Evergreen Motel in
Pensacola, Florida, he picked up Duane's guitar which was tuned to open E and immediately felt inspired by the natural tuning. Words came naturally, but he stumbled on the name of the love interest. The song's namesake was almost settled as Delilah before Melissa came to Allman at a grocery store where he was buying milk late one night, according to a story told in his memoir,
My Cross to Bear. Allman rushed home and incorporated the name into the partially completed song, later introducing it to his brother. The duo produced a demo recording of "Melissa" that later surfaced on
One More Try: An Anthology, a compilation of Greg Allman outtakes released thirty years later. In 1968, the duo recorded it during a demo session with
the 31st of February, a band that featured
Butch Trucks, the Allman Brothers' later drummer. That version is thought to have featured the debut recorded slide guitar performance from Duane Allman, and the entire session was later compiled into
Duane & Greg Allman, released in 1972. Gregg Allman sold the publishing rights to "Melissa", as well as "God Rest His Soul" (a tribute to
Martin Luther King Jr.), to producer
Steve Alaimo for $250 () shortly thereafter. He had been tied up in
Los Angeles, contractually bound by
Liberty Records (who had previously issued albums by the Allmans' first band,
the Hour Glass), and used the money to buy an airplane ticket to fly back. When Duane Allman was killed in a motorcycle accident in 1971, his brother performed the song at his funeral, as he had grown to like the song over the years. Gregg Allman commented that it "didn't sit right" that he used one of his brother's old guitars for the performance, but he nonetheless got through it; he called it "my brother's favorite song that I ever wrote." Both because he did not own the rights and found it "too soft" for the band's repertoire, he never mentioned the song to the members of the Allman Brothers Band. Following Duane's death, manager
Phil Walden arranged to buy back the publishing rights in order to record the song for
Eat a Peach, the band's fourth album. Gregg brought it to the studio the day following his birthday and the band recorded it that afternoon at
Criteria Studios in
Miami, Florida. They felt it lacked a compelling instrumental backing element so guitarist
Dickey Betts created the song's lead guitar line. ==In popular culture==