It contains the first recording of Carter's signature song, "Open the Door".

Originally released on the United Artists label with eight tracks, it was reissued by Capitol Records in 1993 with seven previously unreleased tracks from a 1965 recording session that included Kenny Burrell on guitar.

[2] Scott Yanow, writing for AllMusic, gave Inside Betty Carter two and a half stars out of five.

Yanow commented that "These recordings can be considered the final ones of Betty Carter's early period for, by the time she next appeared on record...the singer was much more adventurous in her improvisations...Highly recommended to Betty Carter fans and to those listeners who find her later work somewhat forbidding.

"[1] Ebony magazine described Inside Betty Carter on its 1973 reissue as "...nothing less than a tour de force of the jazz singer's art...the sensitivity of her renditions is simply shattering.