The original film soundtrack was recorded on 1/4" tape and mixed in mono for the 16mm film. An LP of the soundtrack was released in 1972 and followed the movie's success by becoming a best-seller, also earning gold record certification.
On the charts, the soundtrack spent twenty-three weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart and never went out of circulation. On May 26, 1973, Billboard reported that album sales had reached 30,000 copies in the UK and had an average of 1,000 copies sold per day in the country.
A stereo CD of the soundtrack was released simultaneously with the movie's DVD in 2006.
The reception from music critics was favorable. The Billboard critic stated that the recording perfectly captures Minnelli's electricity and talent, considering all tracks excellent, from the opening "Yes" to the closing "Cabaret" medley. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic, giving it four and a half out of five stars, wrote that among the tracks, Minnelli "was much more at ease with the musical numbers, and as expected, it's the ten-minute 'Cabaret' medley that is the best received."
Regarding the tracklist, there are two differences between the original 1972 version and the reissue: the first is that "Son of a Preacher Man" and "Ring Them Bells" were placed in the correct order for the reissue. The original release had the two songs in reverse order. The second difference is that the original version had a twelfth track titled "Bows." For the reissue, this track was mixed into the end of the preceding track.
This User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; Source: Last.fm.