A review in Variety praised the group's "bounce and drive" and the "listening excitement" that they created on the album. The article suggested that The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone had enough novelty and variety to provide folk music fans with something different.[1]
Billboard Magazine included the album in its "National Breakouts" list in May and June 1963. It was considered a "New Action LP," which the magazine described as "new albums, not yet on Billboard's Top LP's Chart, [that] have been reported getting strong sales action by dealers in major markets."[2][3][4][5]
Other releases and reissues
In 1963, The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone was released on two EP records entitled, The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem No. 1 and The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem No. 2.[6]
The album was reissued in the United Kingdom in 1984 (CBS 32504 LP) and in the United States in 1987 (Shanachie 52015 LP). Shanachie Records released it on CD in 1993.[7]
On 3 January 2013 the album became available in mp3 format for the first time in the United Kingdom.[8] Later that same month the Country Music Group released the mp3 album, O'Donahue, in the United States for digital download only. The album contained the entirety of The Boys Won't Leave the Girls Alone with the tracks in a different order.[9][10]