[4] Gently is a jazz-infused album that also includes romantic ballads and lounge music numbers with arrangements featuring vibraphone, piano, and muted trumpet.

[5] Its title and theme reference moments in Minnelli's love life, starting from her adolescence when she had crushes on handsome schoolboys.

[6] She summed up the inspiration behind the album on The Rosie O'Donnell Show when she explained, "There wasn't a romance section [in the record store].

[7] According to Gilbert Hetherwick, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Angel Records, her appearance on the channel was positive: "She sold thousands of her CD 'Gently' on the network.

[1] Rennie Sparks of the Chicago Reader gave a favorable review, stating that at 50 years old, Liza Minnelli had finally decided to shed the role of a cheerful and optimistic superstar, delivering somber and profound songs, sung with a solitary and sentimental voice, full of fragility and sadness.