Jankelić, on the other hand, was completely new to Bijelo Dugme, arriving via appearing on the band's vocalist Željko Bebek's solo album side project Skoro da smo isti (We're Almost the Same) that had been released several months earlier to poor reviews and inferior commercial reception.

[1] The band started preparing their new studio album during early fall 1978 in Niška Banja‚ while Bijelo Dugme's leader Goran Bregović was still serving his mandatory army stint in Niš, but they definitely reunited in Sarajevo on 1 November.

In April 1979, in an interview for Džuboks magazine, Bregović stated he accepted the label's request to change the lyrics, but that he objected the altering of Stefanović's cover: It's ridiculous!

"[10] In July 2024, Croatia Records, Jugoton's successor, reissued Bitanga i princeza with the original cover art and new mastering conducted at Abbey Road Studios to mark its 45th anniversary.

Upon its release, Bitanga i princeza was praised by the critics as Bijelo Dugme's finest work to date,[1] with more-or-less each one of its seven tracks becoming a hit.

The band managed to sell out Belgrade's Pionir Hall five times during late April 1979, donating the entire revenue to the victims fund of the 1979 Montenegro earthquake.

With more than 70,000 fans in attendance,[1] the concert featured a number of opening acts: Crni Petak, Kilo i Po, Rok Apoteka, Kako, Mama Rock, Formula 4, Peta Rijeka, Čisti Zrak, Aerodrom, Opus, Senad od Bosne, Boomerang, Prva Ljubav, Revolver, Prljavo Kazalište, Tomaž Domicelj, Metak, Obećanje Proljeća, Suncokret, Parni Valjak, Generacija 5 and Siluete.

It is Bebek who, on his interesting début, his only valuable solo release, coqueted with string orchestra and sophisticated song forms, with, just like on Bitanga i princeza, obvious influences by Genesis latest albums, ...And Then There Were Three... and A Trick of the Tail.

The poetic explanation about Christ who was 'a bastard and misery'—probably because he, from the author's point of view, did not manage to redeem anyone–was censored in the song 'Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš', as it was the case with the exquisite cover by the band's regular designer, Dragan S. Stefanović, replaced with the inferior, unmeaning visual solution.

If we bear in mind the 'shocks' that Bijelo Dugme used to cause before and after that, it all seemed unnecessary, because, before and after that, there was not a domestic album, mainstream and with intimate themes, [...] on which everything fit as harmoniously as on Bitanga i princeza.

[13] In 2006, "Sve će to, mila moja, prekriti ruzmarin, snjegovi i šaš" was polled as 14th on the B92 Top 100 Domestic Songs list.