The album was received well by critics, and even sold well. Tender Years later became the most well known song on the album. In 1984, Jones biographer Bob Allen wrote that "The manner in which he sang the words to 'Tender Years' (which, in mid-1961, became his second number one single) was, in fact, just about enough to make the short hairs stand up on the back of one's head." In 1994, country music historian Colin Escott agreed, writing that the song "just about defined the territory he carved out as his own in the years ahead...the song, the production, and the performance came together in a statement of soon-to-be classic George Jones."
