An early musical number, "Do the Bartman", leads the album as the first track and the first single released.

It was an international success, including being the United Kingdom number one single on February 16, 1991, staying there for a further two weeks being certified gold after selling over 400,000 copies.

The album was difficult to produce in between production for the second season of The Simpsons, which was due to premiere just two weeks later.

[4] One particular element that was highly publicized was Jackson's involvement, which was denied around the time of the album's release.

"[4] Early published reports attributed Jackson as the composer of "Do the Bartman", which led to James L. Brooks issuing a press release apologizing for any misunderstanding about who actually wrote the song, instead revealing that Bryan Loren wrote the song.

[5] Fox also organized a media event around the album, pulling in nearly a half-dozen camera crews to interview and tape the would-be recording stars in action.

The lead single from the album, "Do the Bartman", was released on November 20, 1990, followed by the unveiling of animated music video after the Simpsons episode "Bart the Daredevil" on December 6.

[11] On December 14, 1990, the album was certified platinum, having sold over 1 million copies in its first week of release.

[14] "I thought this phenomenon had reached its zenith when the Simpsons' Sing the Blues disc became the fastest selling recording in this country for awhile last year.

[20] Florida Flambeau expressed relief that the album wasn't a Christmas record, although felt that it was "mostly pointless" without being paired with the funny visuals of the show, and wished more songs had been written specifically for the characters.

[23] Hatchet negatively compared it to the 1997 television series soundtrack album Songs in the Key of Springfield, noting that the latter is "actually funny".

SBK and Geffen also enjoyed huge success with albums based on the film Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and The Simpsons Sing the Blues.