As with Springsteen's debut album released earlier in the year, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J., The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle was well-received critically but had little commercial success at the time.

[2] According to biographer Peter Ames Carlin, Springsteen had developed a "renewed passion for full-band rock 'n' roll" with The Wild, the Innocent & the E Street Shuffle.

[8] The building was across the street from West End Elementary School, and for years was Tommy Reed's bicycle repair shop and penny candy store; it has since been demolished and its former location is occupied by a parking lot.

[22] In a less enthusiastic review for Creem, Robert Christgau wrote that it does not cohere as a whole, although its livelier songs make it "the kind of album that will be fun to go back to" if Springsteen improves upon it.

"[17] Reviewing it for AllMusic, William Ruhlmann felt the record epitomized Springsteen's romanticized songwriting and diversity as a composer, making it his best work and "one of the greatest albums in the history of rock & roll".

[26] Writing in Hot Press, Pat Carty declared "if I want to beam like an idiot and remember why I fell in love with music in the first place, this is the Springsteen record I put on".

They included "Zero and Blind Terry", "Thundercrack", "Seaside Bar Song", "Santa Ana", "Bishop Danced", "Evacuation of the West" aka "No More Kings In Texas", "Phantoms" and "Fire on the Wing".

His manager at the time, Mike Appel, without informing Springsteen or Columbia Records, sent a cassette of the song to approximately forty disc jockeys across the US, including Ed Sciaky in Philadelphia, Kid Leo in Cleveland, and other DJs in Boston, New York, Houston, and Dallas.