Although it failed to achieve commercial success, "Encouraging Words" came to be viewed as one of Preston's best albums by his fans, and one of the best non-Beatle Apple releases. In 1974, by which time Preston had had several major chart hits as an A&M Records artist, Harrison was attempting to acquire the rights to Preston's Apple albums and reissue them. In an interview for the "NME" that year, Preston attributed his lack of success on the Beatles' label largely to the "internal dissension at Apple" and said that he and Harrison were "convinced that some of those Apple cuts were among the best I've ever done".