[5][6] Rutsey was soon replaced by Neil Peart, who served as both drummer and primary lyricist on all subsequent Rush albums.

The initial recording sessions were produced by Dave Stock at Eastern Sound Studios in Toronto in two days during the Summer of 1973.

They were scheduled late at night during the 'dead' time in studios because of the band's low budget and the rates during this period were the cheapest.

They moved to Toronto Sound Studios in November 1973 and produced these sessions themselves while achieving a significant improvement in recording quality, with the help of engineer Terry Brown.

They allowed the makers of the popular rhythm game Rock Band to use the master tapes for the song's inclusion.

The promotional version of the LP has a cream-coloured label with a blue Moon Records logo and black type.

In the 2010 documentary film Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, Halper says that "Working Man" was the perfect song for the Cleveland rock audience, as it was still mostly a factory town in 1974.

At this point manager Ray Danniels scraped together an additional $9,000 for producer Terry Brown to professionally re-mix all of the recordings for better sound quality.

The complete album, along with Fly by Night and Caress of Steel, was included as part of the 1978 Anthem release Archives.

[17] Billboard wrote that it "serves up a dose of good hard rock highlighted by the often Robert Plant-like lead vocals of Geddy Lee and the powerful guitar work of Alex Lifeson and solid drumming from John Rutsey.

He finished his review by saying, "While longtime Rush fans can appreciate their debut because they never returned to this style, newcomers should stick with their classics from later years.