Clayton-Thomas was quoted as describing the song as being "written in an age when psychedelic imagery was all over lyrics ... it was my way of saying, 'Don't get too caught up, because everything comes full circle'".[3]
In Clayton-Thomas's 2010 autobiography, Blood, Sweat and Tears, he wrote that the Joni Mitchell song "The Circle Game" inspired some of the lyrics. They lived across the hall from one another in Yorkville, the bohemian rock music epicenter of Toronto similar to Greenwich Village in Manhattan at the same time. He claimed a long-unrequited crush on her. "In later years, our common love for jazz brought us closer together... I was so completely smitten by her that I borrowed a phrase from her song 'The Circle Game', the line about 'painted ponies', and used it in my song 'Spinning Wheel'. In 2007 both songs were inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame and I confessed my plagiarism to her. She said she had never even noticed".[4]
The album version ends with the 1815 Austrian tune "O Du Lieber Augustin" ("The More We Get Together" or "Did You Ever See a Lassie?")[5] and drummer Bobby Colomby's comment: "That wasn't too good", followed by laughter from the rest of the group. According to producer James William Guercio this section was inserted at the last minute after the end of the master tape was recorded over accidentally by an engineer at the studio. Most of this section and Lew Soloff's trumpet solo were edited out for the single version; the instrumental break features also an eight-bar piano solo which precedes the trumpet solo on the album version, and that section was overdubbed with guitar on the single version before the last verse. The quadraphonic mix is presented as the song was originally intended, retaining the guitar solo in the instrumental break from the single version, while the finale (which fades out in this version) is presented uncut as originally recorded before the Austrian tune was added and recorded over for the album version. Alan Rubin sat in on trumpet for Chuck Winfield, who was not able to attend the recording session.
American organist Lenny Dee covered Spinning Wheel on an album by the same name in 1970.[21]
In 1970, P. P. Arnold recorded a version produced by Barry Gibb; it remained unreleased for almost five decades until the long-delayed 2017 issuing of her album "The Turning Tide".
James Brown scored a minor hit in 1971 with an instrumental version of the song, reaching No.90 on the Billboard Hot 100. He also performed it at his shows as early as 1969.[22][23]
The Milli Vanilli song "All or Nothing", released as a single in 1990, has a similar melody to "Spinning Wheel", and was later the subject of a copyright-infringement lawsuit filed by David Clayton-Thomas.[26]
In Germany, a part of the song was used as opening tune for the political cabaret TV show "Neues aus der Anstalt", aired 2007-13.
The song is performed by Jeffrey Tambor's character Hank Kingsley in an episode of The Larry Sanders Show ("Larry's Agent"), where he creates a more Latin sound to it, hoping to perform tap-dancing along with the song.
One of the commercials for Pets.com airing during Super Bowl XXXIV has the dot-com's sock puppet mascot briefly sing the chorus while riding with a delivery driver.
