The soundtrack featured most of the musical numbers from the stage play, performed by the film's ensemble cast members.

Those versions were performed by Sam Smith, SZA, Summer Walker, Carrie Underwood, Dan + Shay, Finneas O'Connell, and Tori Kelly.

Steinberg's "The Anonymous Ones", performed by her in the film and during the end credits by SZA, was shortlisted for Best Original Song category at the 94th Academy Awards, but could not get selected for the final list of nominations.

[1] In August 2020, it was confirmed that in addition to playing Alana Beck, Amandla Stenberg would collaborate with Pasek & Paul on the writing of a new song for her character.

[2][3] Stenberg, speaking to MTV News, had said that writing the song was mostly attributed to her resonation with the character, "I really love the way it unfolded, because we were able to capture the thing we were talking about in all of our meetings together, which is the fact that we're all going through it".

[6] With the official film website being launched in May 2021, it confirmed that the following songs would be included: "You Will Be Found", "Waving Through a Window", "For Forever", and "Words Fail".

[9] This creative decision was negatively received by critics and audiences, largely due to the filmmakers' main goal to capture and immortalize Ben Platt's performance.

It also includes covers of five of the songs by popular artists, such as Sam Smith, Finneas O'Connell, Carrie Underwood, Dan + Shay, and Tori Kelly.

[18] This track was later included as one of the unreleased songs from SZA's studio album Ctrl (Deluxe) on its fifth anniversary in June 2022.