Despite the fact that the film only aired on the CBS network in the US and the soundtrack only featured Midler on seven of the seventeen tracks, it was released as a Bette Midler album by Atlantic Records. The soundtrack peaked at number 183 on US Billboard 200 but failed to chart elsewhere.
Critical reception
AllMusic editor William Ruhlmann found that Midler "was too accustomed to being ingratiating and sympathetic to be as much of a monster as Rose is supposed to be, and she didn't quite have the voice for the more demanding songs [...] In the more confrontational numbers, such as "Some People" and "Everything's Coming Up Roses," she didn't go far enough [...] On the whole, then, Midler did a respectable job, but not the one she was capable of, if she had worked harder. As such, this Gypsy, while a vast improvement over the disastrous movie soundtrack, was on a par with the Tyne Daly revival."[1]