Ronstadt recorded her album "Heart Like a Wheel" with producer Peter Asher in the summer of 1974 at the Sound Factory; "You're No Good" was a last-minute choice for recording, and while the song was Ronstadt's suggestion, Asher recalls: "It was an odd coincidence. She’d been doing the song already, and it was always a favorite song of mine...the version I fell in love with by the Swinging Blue Jeans". The original backing track intended for Ronstadt's version of "You're No Good" was recorded July 1, 1974. According to Bob Warford, a guitarist in Ronstadt's touring band who played on the July 1 track, "They were trying to do an R&B version of the song, which was actually closer to the way we did it live than to the released version. We played it at a faster tempo live, which we did on that recording of July 1." Ronstadt vetoed the July 1 arrangement; she recalls: "It was just the wrong groove for me. I don’t think I knew how to phrase around players, certainly no fault of theirs. They were fantastic."