The album cover, a photo by punk photographer Ed Colver, featured an image of the band members and others (including Mike Ness of Social Distortion) running in the streets at Columbus Avenue, San Francisco, California.
Wild in the Streets received a mixed review from Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic, who gave the album 3 out of 5 stars, claiming that it does not have “the wild, appealingly offensive mixture of crude lyrics and frenetic riffs that made the Circle Jerks’ debut, Group Sex“. However, Erlewine added that “there are enough tracks that nearly make the mark — including a tongue-in-cheek cover of ‘Put a Little Love in Your Heart‘ and the title track, which is a version of the theme song to the ’60s teen exploitation flick of the same name — to make it worthwhile for Orange County punk fanatics”.
