In an early review, "Rolling Stone" thought that the album suffered from a major fault of inconsistency. "The good cuts are very good; but the bad ones just don't make it," it said. The review was positive on the title track "Born on the Bayou" and "Proud Mary", but thought many of the other tracks lacked originality. Overall it considered the material in the album "not always strong, but Creedence Clearwater Revival plays with enough gusto to overcome this problem." On the reissue of this album on its 40th-anniversary in 2008, the album was given a score of 3.5 stars out of 5.