The Beatles began rehearsal sessions at George Harrison's home in Esher on May 20, 1968, during which they recorded a demo of 'Yer Blues'. This recording has been bootlegged and can be found on "Unsurpassed Demos" (CD) and "The 1968 Demos" (CD).

The Beatles began recording 'Yer Blues' on August 13, 1968 for release on "The Beatles" (a.k.a. "The White Album"). The first 14 takes were of the basic rhythm track - drums, bass, rhythm and lead guitars. Takes 15 and 16 were reductions of take 6, and take 17 was a reduction of the first part of take 14. The beginning of take 17 was edited to the end of take 16 and runs through to the fade-out. John Lennon added a second vocal on August 14 and four mono mixes (remixes 1 - 4 from edit of takes 16 and 17) were prepared.

The "two, three..." count-in shouted by Ringo Starr was recorded and edited to mono mix three, the released version. The stereo mix was prepared October 14 in five attempts.

For The Rolling Stones' unreleased film "Rock And Roll Circus," a rehearsal and an ad-lib improvisation of this song were recorded by John and Mick Jagger. The vocal from the rehearsal is barley audible, and different bootlegs of this recording run between 1'29" and 4'00". The version included in the film is found on several bootlegs in varying length, some more than 8 minutes. The full original recording time is reported to be 8'47". Some bootlegs feature this version in stereo. An edited version of this recording was released in the US on The Rolling Stones' "Rock And Roll Circus" album on October 15, 1996.

John and Yoko Ono flew to Toronto where they participated in the "Rock and Roll Revival" at Varsity Stadium on September 13, 1969. With the help of the Plastic Ono Band (Eric Clapton, Klaus Voorman and Alan White), they recorded this song, which was released on the album "The Plastic Ono Band - Live Peace In Toronto." The album, produced by John and Yoko, was released in both the UK and the US on December 12, 1969.