"[2] Neil Taylor from NME commented, "England's most successful female trio strut out their stuff aided and abetted by SAW.

Simplicity made these girls and whilst the lyrics here is suitably lightweight, the song has too many complicated musical twists and turns.

[4] Betty Page of the same magazine stated that "I Want You Back" is "another SAW Hit Factory production, [although] this seems not as immediate as "I Can't Help It" but even after one play it feels like you've been humming it for days".

[5] In a review published in Smash Hits, English synth-pop duo Erasure were highly critical of the song, saying it was "terrible" and "pretty bad"; Andy Bell added: "I'd be really ashamed if I was releasing singles like this", considered that SAW were only making songs for money and that "it's a really shame how Bananarama have gone".

[6] Retrospectively, in 2014, Matt Dunn of WhatCulture ranked the song at number 10 in his "15 unforgettable Stock Aitken Waterman singles" list.

[7] In 2021, Classic Pop ranked "I Want You Back" number 29 in their list of "Top 40 Stock Aitken Waterman songs".

Another scenario features the girls performing their dance routine dressed in silver gowns, wigs and skin darkening makeup as The Supremes.

[1] These scenes are interspersed with go-go boys dancing with wigs or in cages clad only in briefs and glow-in-the-dark body paint.

An alternative version exists with a scenario of the girls in long wigs replacing the choreographed dance routine scenes.