The film score was composed, arranged and conducted by Elmer Bernstein, but the picture also featured jazz themes performed and recorded by the Chico Hamilton Quintet.

[4] The first soundtrack LP was released in July 1957 by Decca Records (catalog DL 8610) and featured the jazz score composed by Elmer Bernstein.

[7][8] The liner notes of the 2008 compact disc reissue state that the Bernstein score was recorded on June 12, 1957, and the Hamilton tracks on July 12, 1957, but that is inaccurate.

In a retrospective review, Allmusic's Blair Sanderson noted, "The soundtrack to Alexander Mackendrick's 1957 motion picture Sweet Smell of Success combines orchestral music by the versatile Elmer Bernstein and modern jazz by the Chico Hamilton Quintet, including numbers performed in the film's club scenes.

[9] In a 2008 review for The Guardian, John L. Walters called the soundtrack compilation "the sonic equivalent of a well-mixed Manhattan: seven cool cues by drummer Chico Hamilton's adventurous band, and 14 orchestral blasts by Elmer Bernstein".