Having Fun with Elvis on Stage was first exclusively sold at Presley's summer 1974 Las Vegas concerts, but RCA later claimed rights to the recording and began to package and distribute it.

Having Fun with Elvis on Stage has been considered Presley's worst album; many critics felt that the compilation of banter was incoherent and lacked context with the removal of the songs.

In their 1991 book, Jimmy Guterman and Owen O'Donnell named Having Fun with Elvis on Stage the worst rock-and-roll album of all time, noting its lack of actual "rock and roll."

[1][3] Mark Deming of AllMusic states that "some have called Having Fun with Elvis on Stage thoroughly unlistenable, but actually it's worse than that; hearing it is like witnessing an auto wreck that somehow plowed into a carnival freak show, leaving onlookers at once too horrified and too baffled to turn away.

"[3] Nick Greene, a writer for Mental Floss, felt that the material presented on the record is "so incoherent, you don't really get an idea of his stage presence, despite the fact that all the audio comes from his shows.