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The album was produced by Bob Feldman. "Street Corner Symphony" is a medley of 14 early pop, doo-wop, and rock and roll songs. The version of George Harrison's "My Sweet Lord", which includes a snippet of the Chiffons' "He's So Fine", employed kazoo and percussion.
The New York Times labeled Cigars, Acappella, Candy "more interesting" than the Dion and the Belmonts reunion album, and deemed "Street Corner Symphony" "a miracle of compression." Robert Christgau praised the album but expressed his preference for the Persuasions. Richard Price, in a Rolling Stone interview with Dion, similarly considered the album second only to the work of the Persuasions. The Chicago Tribune wrote that the Belmonts "handle the a cappella format well, producing a hefty sound with swooping falsetto, vibrant bass, and tight harmonies." The Commercial Appeal noted the "superb three-part harmonizing." The Buffalo Evening News determined that the Belmonts sing the songs "with style, a little flash and not too much pandering."
In December 1979, the music critics Ed Ward and Greil Marcus included the album on their Village Voice ballots for the 10 best albums of the 1970s. In 1992, The Rolling Stone Illustrated History of Rock & Roll called Cigars, Acappella, Candy "some of the most heartbreakingly beautiful doo-wop singing ever recorded." In 2010, Spin listed the album as one of eight "essential" doo-wop albums, writing that the Belmonts "sing music that still feels transmitted from space."
