[1] It features her most recognizable song, "Forget Me Nots", the oft-sampled "Remind Me" and the popular instrumental workout "Number One".

The success of "Forget Me Nots" is considered the major contributor to the album's popularity at the time of its release.

[2] In contemporary reviews, The Village Voice music critic Robert Christgau gave Straight from the Heart a "C+" and said that he prefers side one's "dancy vamp" over the songwriting on side two by Rushen, whom he called a fashionable "ingenue".

[4] Mike Freedberg of The Boston Phoenix said that Rushen "packs only the simplest themes hung on the driest melodies and boniest progressions.

"[5] In a retrospective review, AllMusic's Andy Kellman called it "an early-'80s jazz-pop-R&B synthesis as durable and pleasing as any other".