Boasting some "of the bossest splatter platters ever recorded," the album collects 10 examples of the teenage tragedy song including parodies of the genre.

[1] The grisly "I Want My Baby Back" (also included on The Rhino Brothers Present the World's Worst Records in 1983) made the lower reaches of the Billboard Hot 100 in 1965.

[2] The last song on the album, Julie Brown's "Homecoming Queen's Got a Gun," was first independently released as a B-side in late 1983 and never officially charted; the following year, it was included on Goddess in Progress, a Rhino EP (catalog no.

Chicago Tribune music critic Tom Popson, reviewing the LP in 1985, wrote that the album reflects "a genre that had its heyday 20 to 25 years ago" and "is filled with the sad, shabby stories of young lovers who suffered the utmost in heart-wrenching, garment-rending, maximum-melodrama agony.”[5] In SPIN’s November 1988 issue, writer Legs McNeil noted the compilation's appeal – “This LP makes us here at SPIN nostalgic for great slaughtered-teen tear-jerkers and gives us pause to wonder why there are not modernized versions of the genre”.

For a related contest, McNeil invited readers, “in the interest of resurrecting this vital aspect of rock’n’roll lore,” to submit ideas for “Teen Tragedy Update: Song Titles We’d Like to See.” The magazine offered as prizes five copies of the LP that inspired the contest.