The album was initially released by Island Records UK in late 1972 (catalog no.

ILPS 9215) following Mott's move to CBS/Columbia Records earlier that year, and the band's success with their first CBS/Columbia album All the Young Dudes.

The release also shortly followed recording of ex-Mott guitarist Mick Ralphs's first album with his new band Bad Company,[5] which was issued as the first release by Atlantic's affiliated label Swan Song Records in June 1974 in North America.

Stevens' selections might in some cases be viewed as questionable; in particular, his choices include a short edit of "The Wheel of the Quivering Meat Conception" (a coda to Ian Hunter's song "The Journey" on which Stevens took a songwriter's credit), and one track from Mott's largely self-produced album Wildlife that Stevens collaborated with them on, the live 1950s rock and roll medley "Keep A Knockin'."

Regardless of this, however, critic Ira Robbins cited the album as having merit in his Trouser Press online retrospective of Ian Hunter's and Mott the Hoople's work: "Rock and Roll Queen ... omits 'Sweet Angeline' [from Mott's fourth album Brain Capers] and includes 'Keep A Knockin' but is otherwise a fair sampler of the band's Atlantic era.