After the release of his 1982 eponymous debut studio album, Idol continued his collaboration with producer Keith Forsey and multi-instrumentalist Steve Stevens.

Idol got the idea of the album's title after attending a party with the Rolling Stones and drinking Rebel Yell bourbon whiskey.

In response, Idol decided to steal the master tapes for the album and give them to his drug dealer so that he could blackmail the company, saying, "This guy I've given them to, he'll have them out on the street bootlegged in a couple of days if you don't change this picture.

Parke Puterbaugh of Rolling Stone called it "a ferocious record, sharp as a saber, hard as diamond, as beautiful and seductive as the darker side of life with which it flirts", and ultimately "an intelligent assault upon the senses" at a time "when too much of what comes over the airwaves is all sweetness and light, or mere undifferentiated head-banging".

[12] In Smash Hits, Kimberley Leston praised Idol and Stevens for "stirring together rock, disco and punk elements without forgetting the importance of a good tune.

"[16] In the 2004 Rolling Stone Album Guide, Rob Sheffield highlighted the wide-ranging music on Rebel Yell, calling it "a brilliant combination of punk, disco, synth pop, glam rock, metal, and mud wrestling".

He's unafraid to be gloriously, shameless tacky, a quality that separated him from his new wave peers then and continues to give Rebel Yell a trashy kick years after its release.