10 in the US and became double-platinum for shipping two million copies in the US by the end of the year, just as their debut album Night Songs had done earlier.

[10] Only Rock Hard reviewer considered Long Cold Winter "a surprisingly strong rock'n'roll album, rough, unpolished, powerful, but still melodious", and praised Keifer's vocals and the level of songwriting.

Steve Huey of AllMusic reviewed Long Cold Winter as "a transition album for Cinderella, mixing pop-metal tunes with better hooks than those on Night Songs with a newfound penchant for gritty blues-rock à la the Stones or Aerosmith", and further explained his rating by saying "[not] all of the songs are memorable, but most of them are".

[5] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff was harsher in his judgement and wrote that Cinderella strived to be "a next Stones or Aerosmith, not realizing that such talents are both rare and natural, and that without the gift and conviction, [their] attempt reeks of imitation and crass commercialism.

"[6] In 2019, Chuck Eddy of Rolling Stone also praised the album and wrote that "in retrospect Long Cold Winter ranks with any blues-rock of the Eighties".