As if to confirm the diversity of the group's influences, they also cut Ted Nugent & The Amboy Dukes' "Journey to the Centre of Your Mind", "Ain't Got No Heart" by Frank Zappa & The Mothers of Invention, the Moody Blues' "Fly Me High", Lennon and McCartney's "Martha My Dear" and "If This World Were Mine" by Marvin Gaye.

The cover artwork for the original British release of the album features a photo of the band on Pouk Hill in Walsall, a local landmark which was close to lead singer Noddy Holder's home.

The band didn't enjoy the photo session due to the photographer insisting that they should pose naked from the waist up in extremely cold weather.

Aside from recording the odd, unsuccessful single, the band mainly concentrated on building a reputation on the UK's live circuit.

[4] Baverstock soon offered to sign the band if they changed their name to Ambrose Slade and found London-based management.

The band spent a week in the Philips studio at Stanhope Place recording Beginnings with engineer Roger Wake.

In a 1980 interview, bassist Jim Lea recalled: "This was our first major crack at making a record, so it was all important not to let it slip.

During the recording of the album, Ambrose Slade would be introduced to Chas Chandler, who visited the band in the studio with his business partner Gunnel.

Impressed by what he heard in the studio, Chandler decided to watch the band perform live at Rasputin's club the following night.

The band would later perform the song on the BBC children's show Monster Music Mash in 1969 when promoting the single "Wild Winds Are Blowing".

"Born to be Wild" was later included on the 1972 live album Slade Alive!, which gave the band's version of the song greater recognition.

Record Mirror, in a review of the "Genesis" single, described the album as a "fine debut" from a band of "very substantial talent".

Later in 1991, a retrospective of Beginnings by Q said: "It's an odd but pleasant album, which sees the quartet nervously relax in The Small Faces' shoes."

Dave Thompson in a retrospective summary for AllMusic feels that the album presents "little of what you'd expect from Slade", although "Noddy Holder's vocals are unmistakable".