"Rock 'n' Roll Bolero" featured the return of Jim Lea's electric violin; the first time on a Slade single since "Coz I Luv You" in 1971.

What we wanted to do was to make a record, the next single, [which would] give people a shock and I think that's what we've achieved with 'Rock 'n' Roll Bolero'.

"[4]In a 1979 fan club interview, Lea spoke of the song's reception, "The comment on 'Rock 'n' Roll Bolero' is that it was different for Slade, but it was ordinary compared to everything else that was going around at the time.

[6] Upon its release, Steve Gett of Record Mirror commented, "A more mellow Slade here: gone are the raucous Noddy Holder vocals and the crashing guitars.

"[8] Geoff Ginsberg of AllMusic, in a retrospective review of the bootleg album Gospel According to Noddy!, praised the B-side, "It's Alright Buy Me", as "unbelievably catchy and just cooks".