[1] The songs on the original version of the Five Faces of Manfred Mann are R&B, including the band's cover versions of Howlin' Wolf's "Smokestack Lightning", Muddy Waters' "Got My Mojo Working", and Bo Diddley's "Bring It to Jerome", as well as a few of the group's own jazzy compositions.

The album includes the Cannonball Adderley song "Sack O' Woe" from the R&B-influenced school of early 1960s jazz.

[4] Bruce Eder of AllMusic writes: The debut album by Manfred Mann holds up even better 40 years on than it did in 1964.

[1]In his retrospective review of the US release, critic Bruce Eder wrote, "The band's second American LP (which shares its title with their first British album) was slightly less impressive than their first, but was still a respectable mix of R&B and pop.

This version is more pop-oriented than its predecessor, The Manfred Mann Album, as it features "Sha La La", "Come Tomorrow",[9] and "Hubble Bubble (Toil and Trouble)"; as well as compositions made by lead singer Paul Jones and the traditional American folk number "John Hardy".