The single "The Letter"/"Space Captain", recorded during rehearsals, was released to coincide with the tour. The album yielded the single "Cry Me a River"/"Give Peace a Chance." "Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen"/"Let It Be" was a single from the movie soundtrack that featured Leon Russell and Claudia Lennear. The Leon Russell song was also released on his album Leon Russell and the Shelter People.
In 2005, Mad Dogs & Englishmen was released as a two-disc deluxe edition set through Universal Records to commemorate the album's 35th anniversary.[1]
Initially, Pete Nartez's review in Rolling Stone was generally negative, assessing that the album was "formed on a few days' notice to meet contractual obligations, and sounds like, well, like a group that was formed on a few days' notice to meet contractual obligations." He praised the tracks "Feelin' Alright," "Give Peace a Chance" and "Delta Lady," but criticized the majority of the arrangements and said the album lacks stylistic variety.[6]
A more recent review of the box set in the same magazine was more positive, calling the band "a pickup orchestra with saloon-soul swagger."[5]
In a retrospective review for AllMusic, Bruce Eder praised the album for the unique sound created by the unconventionally large rock band. He noted that Cocker's creative presence on the album was drowned out by that of Russell, but held that this was not a bad thing.[3] Kevin Perry, writing Cocker's obituary in the NME,[7] described the album as a classic and one of two things (the other his cover of "With a Little Help from My Friends") that first brought Cocker his fame.
In 1971 at the 13th Annual Grammy Awards, Mad Dogs & Englishmen was nominated for the Grammy for Best Contemporary Vocal Performance, Male. "Everything is Beautiful" by Ray Stevens won the Grammy in that category.[8] In 2021, Mad Dogs & Englishmen was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame.[9]
Track listing
Side one
No.
Title
Writer(s)
Length
1.
"Introduction (uncredited: "Turn on Your Love Light")"
The two-disc deluxe edition expanded and re-sequenced the order of the original album to more closely reflect the actual order of the songs' presentation in concert. Introductions from the original album were matched with their corresponding songs, with about an hour of additional content, including songs with lead vocals performed by Leon Russell, Don Preston and Claudia Lennear as noted above. The new edition also added previously released Cocker covers such as "Darling Be Home Soon", "Something" and "With a Little Help from My Friends".
Four bonus tracks that were not recorded in concert were included. One was a rehearsal jam. The single ("The Letter/"Space Captain"), recorded during rehearsals on a sound stage, that was released to coincide with the tour was also included. "The Ballad of Mad Dogs and Englishmen" was recorded by Russell later in 1970 and released on his Leon Russell and the Shelter People album in 1971.