Bella Donna was awarded platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on October 7, 1981, less than three months after its release, and in 1990 was certified quadruple-platinum for four million copies shipped.

[3] Bella Donna would mark the beginning of Nicks' trend of calling upon her many musician friends and connections to fully realize her sparse demo recordings.

[6] Nicks began work on Bella Donna in 1979, in between sessions for Fleetwood Mac's Tusk album, released in October that year.

[7][8] Nicks recalled that the album was recorded piecemeal since several of the session musicians, including Waddy Watchel and Russ Kunkel, were operating under a tight schedule.

Nicks wrote "Think About It" for her friend and Fleetwood Mac bandmate Christine McVie during the Rumours recording sessions, but the song was never completed until Bella Donna.

[1] On her Enchanted boxed set release in 1998, remastered versions of some Bella Donna tracks ran noticeably longer in some instances, notably "Leather and Lace".

The third disc consists of live tracks from Nicks' "White Wing Dove" tour 1981, recorded at the Fox Wilshire Theatre in Los Angeles, California on December 13, 1981.

The final night at The Wilshire Fox Theatre in Beverly Hills was recorded by HBO for a television special[19] and later released on VHS and LaserDisc video in many territories by CBS/Fox in 1982 as White Wing Dove – Stevie Nicks in Concert.

She admits that her tears at the end of the song were due to her thoughts of having to join Fleetwood Mac in France the following day to begin recording the album Mirage, one of the key reasons why the 1981 tour was so short.

[25] Writing for Rolling Stone, Stephen Holden praised the album's "superb arrangements" and highlighted the drumming of Russ Kunkel and guitar playing of Waddy Watchel.

"[23] In a retrospective review, Alex Henderson of AllMusic considered that Nicks' solo career was "off to an impressive start" and highlighted how the album "yielded a number of hits that seemed omnipresent in the '80s".

Released on 4 November 2016, this edition features remastered audio and consists of three discs, divided into: the original album; alternate versions, unreleased tracks, and "rarities"; and a 1981 concert.