"[6] Robert Christgau found that Ferry "both undercuts the inflated idealism of [Bob Dylan's 'A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall'] and reaffirms its essential power", establishes Lesley Gore's "It's My Party" as a protest song, and with his cover of "These Foolish Things", "reminds us that pop is only, well, foolish things, many of which predate not only Andy Warhol but rock and roll itself.

"[8] In 1983's The New Rolling Stone Record Guide, Dave Marsh wrote: These Foolish Things pits Lesley Gore against Bob Dylan, and not just for effect.

Ferry views pop as a kind of continuum, extending through all sorts of Tin Pan Alley and Brill Building craftsmanship and incorporating visions as radical as Dylan's and as banal as Gore's.

By altering tempos and singing every song with the deadpan emotional blankness he largely avoids with Roxy, Ferry exposes these issues as effectively as any pop singer in history.

[12]In AllMusic, critic Ned Raggett said that throughout These Foolish Things, "Ferry's instantly recognizable croon carries everything to a tee, and the overall mood is playful and celebratory", calling the album "one of the best of its kind by any artist.