The former contains a foreword and a short synopsis, provided by Gregory Maguire, who wrote the 1995 novel on which the musical is based, in addition to lyrics to those songs included.

A fifth anniversary special edition of the original Broadway cast recording was released on October 28, 2008,[1] with a bonus CD including tracks "Dancing Through Life", "Popular", "As Long as You're Mine" and "No Good Deed" from the Japanese and German cast recordings of Wicked, "I'm Not That Girl" by Kerry Ellis, "Making Good" – a song that never made the final show – by Stephanie J.

These tracks were taken from live performances on the show A Very Wicked Halloween: Celebrating 15 Years On Broadway, which was broadcast by NBC on October 29, 2018.

They also noted that Chenoweth received the "Broadway belting material" and Menzel the "more adult contemporary-type ballads" and felt that this suited their respective characters.

"[6] Writing for Entertainment Weekly, Lawrence Frascella gave the album a negative rating of C+, expressing that it was "fresh evidence that Broadway needs a new, galvanizing musical direction."

Frascella lambasted the songs as "a dreary melange of Disney and Sondheim", though he praised the "lushly produced CD" and the performances of Chenoweth and Menzel.

He commended the former's "effortless" glides "from ditzy-blonde comedy to thrilling operatic trill" and the latter's "clamorous and ear-piercing" voice that "cuts through the fog of show-tune cliche.

In 2012, Mika recorded a dance-pop version of "Popular Song", featuring Priscilla Renea, for his album The Origin of Love.