The song received heavy radio airplay, and an accompanying music video was shown frequently on MTV.

"Angry Johnny" has a slow rhythm and, like much of Hello, incorporates layered vocal tracks.

Billboard praised the single, particularly the "fun and clever sexual euphemisms" of the lyrics.

[2] "Angry Johnny" peaked at #7 on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks chart.

[3] A two-second clip of "Angry Johnny" was included in the endpapers of the US hardcover version of Mark Z. Danielewski's novel House of Leaves, in the form of hexadecimal numbers that, when compiled in a hex editor, could be turned into an AIFF audio file.