Walter Parazaider told writer William James Ruhlmann that "The reason behind the live record for Carnegie Hall is, we were the first rock 'n' roll group to sell out a week at Carnegie Hall, and that was worth rolling up the trucks for, putting the mikes up there, and really chronicling what happened in 1971.

[citation needed] In 2005, Chicago at Carnegie Hall was remastered and re-issued on three CDs by Rhino Records with improved sound quality, a bonus disc of eight tracks of alternate takes and songs not on the 1971 edition, and recreations of nearly all the original posters and packaging.

The set was produced by engineer Tim Jessup along with band member Lee Loughnane, and was released on September 10, 2021.

[1] Lester Bangs, writing for Creem in February 1972, considered the musicianship on Chicago at Carnegie Hall "technically competent" but "there are just too many times when you can hear all the parts better than the whole."

He also considered the arrangements "sodden" carbon copies of the studio versions augmented with "directionless solos," and called the album the band's worst.

[13] In a retrospective review, Lindsay Planer of Allmusic praised the "muscular" performances of several songs, but considered the reeds and the brass thin-sounding, and Carnegie Hall to be acoustically poor for amplified rock.