Certified 4× Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), the album sold over seven million copies worldwide.

To promote the album, Tiffany embarked on a nationwide shopping mall tour to give 60 free performances, helping her gain a fan base.

The mall tour concept proved influential; it was later adapted by Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and 98 Degrees.

Tiffany started singing at the age of two or four when her cousin taught her the lyrics to the Tanya Tucker song "Delta Dawn" at a supermarket.

[2][7][8] At the age of 12, Tiffany's family friend helped her meet producer George Tobin and sing country songs for him at his office.

[6] Tiffany and Tobin listened to everything from Black pop to hard rock and "settled on a mix" to create the "best possible album" for them.

[15] According to music critic Robert Christgau, Tiffany is a fantasy album about the "growing pains of a wholesome California teen".

[24] Prior to production of the album, Tobin spent a couple of years experimenting with different styles for her maturity.

[2] The album's opening track, "Should've Been Me", explores mid-tempo rock,[21][25][26] and tells a story of a girl "jealously obsessing on an ex-boyfriend's jacket.

[27] Janice Page of The Providence Journal commented that the song is "in the spirit" of Madonna's "La Isla Bonita".

[27] Music critic Joe Kowalski described the song as a "dark and moody piece done in an older, deeper voice.

[21] Tiffany's cover of "I Saw Her Standing There" explored genres of pop,[33] disco,[21] new wave,[22] funk,[23] and lounge rock.

[21] It included a "Prince-style funk" arrangement,[23] with an intro and outro of "zombie vocal[s]",[28] keyboards,[34] guitar solos,[23] and "slam bam" drums.

[28] "Johnny's Got the Inside Moves" is a mid-tempo song[26] that explores disco music and conveys her vocals of "adolescent emotional hunger.

[37] The album's final track, "Could've Been", is a ballad that includes more "grown-up" lyrics[38] about losing and mourning the "great love of her life".

[38][40] After production for Tiffany was completed, MCA Records failed to implement a marketing plan, and the boxes of newly pressed albums sat in storage for months.

"[4] Her free tour was covered by the Los Angeles Times which quoted her co-manager Brad Schmidt saying, "If 'Tif is going to make it, she's going to do it first among 12- to 18-year-olds, and what better place to expose her than in America's playgrounds, the malls.

[1] Co-manager and producer George Tobin videotaped the mall concerts himself, and assembled the footage to make the official music video for "I Think We're Alone Now".

[43] In August, a Chicago radio station started to play Tiffany's cover version of Tommy James & the Shondells' song "I Think We're Alone Now".

[59] The music video was directed by Jay Dubin and was filmed at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

[19] Chris Tworney of Record Mirror wrote that the singer was the "latest in seemingly inexhaustible supply of virgin prunes to dominate [the] charts.

[73] Agnes Torres of the Orlando Sentinel rated the album two out of five stars, criticizing the production as "busy" and songs as "sluggish" and "grating".

DeCurtis criticized the production, songwriting, and management for "[letting] Tiff down", and described her cover of "I Think We're Alone Now" as "sterile" and "I Saw Him Standing There" as a "conceptual disaster".

[24] Cary Wills of The Courier-Journal gave the album an extremely negative review, lamenting "I Think We're Alone Now" as a "wad of fake funk/pop garbage" and "I Saw Him Standing There" as "equally embarrassing".

Concluding the review, Buss stated that even though this is a "fair debut for a young singer with a voice she'd grow into", her follow-up, Hold an Old Friend's Hand, is "more consistently realized.

[41] To attract larger audiences, the DreamChaser Tour pushed the performances outside to the mall parking lot, bringing a portable stage with lights and enough sound equipment to cover 10,000 people.