Release
Extra Texture was issued on Apple Records in September 1975, with "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" sequenced as the third track, in between "The Answer's at the End" and Harrison's Smokey Robinson tribute "Ooh Baby (You Know That I Love You)". Aside from the well-received lead single, "You", the album offered little in the way of "hook-laden potential hit", author Bruce Spizer writes. On 8 December, Apple released "This Guitar" as the follow-up single in America, with Apple catalogue number 1885. The single version of the song was edited down to a running time of 3:49, by fading out early during Harrison's closing solo. Underlining the paucity of radio-friendly selections on Extra Texture, the B-side was "Māya Love", taken from the Dark Horse album. The single's UK release (as Apple R 6012) was delayed until 6 February 1976.
"This Guitar" was available in generic Apple sleeves only in America and Britain. The German picture sleeve, featuring black text on a white background, contained a large black-on-red Om symbol, reflecting an aspect of Roy Kohara's design for Extra Texture, where the symbol appeared in blue on a vivid orange background. The Japanese sleeve incorporated Kohara's colour scheme from the parent album, surrounding an image of Harrison on stage during the 1974 tour. The picture was taken by tour photographer Henry Grossman, who worked extensively with the Beatles in the mid 1960s. Harrison did no promotion for the single, but his guest appearance on friend Eric Idle's Rutland Weekend Television 1975 Christmas special, singing the purpose-written "The Pirate Song", signalled a return to form for him in 1976.
"This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" failed to place on either the US Billboard Hot 100 or the UK's official singles chart, then just a top 50. "This Guitar"'s failure to chart in America was a surprise, since all of Harrison's previous singles had made the top 40 there. Robert Rodriguez attributes its lack of success to the fact that Apple was "unning on fumes" by this point and the company's promotion for the single was therefore non-existent. By the time the single appeared in Britain, close to five months after the song's initial release, Harrison's involvement with Apple was officially over, following his signing with A&M-distributed Dark Horse Records in January 1976.
Despite its commercial failure, "This Guitar (Can't Keep from Crying)" is notable as the final release on the original Apple Records label. While noting that the song became the first single by a former Beatle not to place on any of the three main US charts, Spizer adds: "It was a sad end and far cry from the success of Apple's first release, 'Hey Jude'."
Former Eurythmic Dave Stewart recalls recording a version of "This Guitar" with Harrison in London. This recording was published over the internet as part of Stewart's Platinum Weird project, in March 2006 – over four years after Harrison's death from cancer at the age of 58. The song did not appear on Platinum Weird's 2006 album, however, titled Make Believe.
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