The album was released during a period of popularity for grunge music, an aggressive rock style which contrasted with No Doubt's upbeat sound.

Despite strong audience reaction to the band's tours, album sales under-performed expectations and sold about 30,000 copies, and received mixed reviews.

[4] In December 1987, Spence committed suicide several days before the band was to play a gig at The Roxy Theatre for record industry employees.

[3] When Meade left the band, Gwen replaced him as lead singer,[3] while No Doubt continued to develop a live following in California.

All of the band members continued going to school to finish their education while recording their debut album in a Los Angeles studio.

[8] They played alongside bands such as Rage Against the Machine, Ugly Kid Joe, Sublime, Dance Hall Crashers, 311,[7] Public Enemy, Pato Banton and The Special Beat.

Beginning as a poem Tom wrote for school, bandleader at the time Eric Stefani then shaped the arrangement with everyone contributing lyrics.

The horn section and quasi-ska rhythms remain inspired by those early Madness/Fishbone influences, while the emerging sense of flow and pop bounce makes the track a benchmark for the time and a notable milestone today.

[12] Rhapsody, in a positive review, described it as "one of the album's highlights"[13] and AllMusic called it "as exciting" as two of No Doubt's more successful singles, "Hella Good" and "Just a Girl".

The Beacon Street Collection was re-released in October 1997 as part of the band's back catalog and, by the summer of 1997, No Doubt had sold 250,000 copies.

It described the music on the album as "pop-oriented", with "new wave keyboards and punchy brass proving a foil to the basic ska framework", and complimented Gwen Stefani's "extroverted" vocals.

[15] Rhapsody also gave the album a positive review, albeit retrospectively, calling it "a far cry from the radio pop [the band] became known for".