D.C. Cab performed poorly at the box office, and the soundtrack peaked at number 181 on the album chart in Billboard magazine.

The film's producer, Topper Carew, explained how he chose the artists involved such as Shalamar, Peabo Bryson, and DeBarge: "We were looking for urban contemporary music acts who were particularly strong in the black community with young people, yet had the potential for crossing over.

[2] Musical Youth were even filmed for a scene in the movie that was left on the cutting room floor,[3] while plans for Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five to appear on-screen also fell through.

[4] A track titled "D.C. Cab" that is different than the Peabo Bryson song on this album was credited to Grandmaster Melle Mel and the Furious Five on the 1999 compilation Adventures on the Wheels of Steel.

[16] The January 28, 1984, issue was the start of another 8-week run for the song, this time as a dance remix that made it to number 26 on the magazine's Dance/Disco Top 80 chart.

[19] The title song, performed by Peabo Bryson, began 9 weeks on the Black Singles chart in the February 11 issue of Billboard and reached number 53.

At the time of its release, Billboard Dance Trax columnist Brian Chin insisted that the soundtrack was "an album to rave over" and had high praise for Moroder and Ramone, describing the project as "a fascinating, satisfying indicator of how much study that team has put into new American production styles since creating the music for Flashdance.

"[23] He liked Shalamar's "Deadline U.S.A." much more than their recent hit "Dead Giveaway" and described Champaign's "Knocks Me On My Feet" as being "in the very voguish vocal group/electronics fusion mode.

Griffith dismissed the album as a "poor relic from the early Reagan era" that was "not up to the quality of the soundtracks for Fame, Flashdance, or Footloose.