Dirty Looks was Newton's follow-up to Juice (her "breakthrough" album) and Quiet Lies. Both of those two albums had been major hits for Capitol and, between them, had produced six top ten singles. With their success, Capitol seemed determined to more than ever to push Newton further into the pop market. Unfortunately, Dirty Looks was not as successful as Juice and Quiet Lies and only produced three modest hits. "Tell Her No", a reworking of The Zombies's 1965 top ten hit, peaked at number 27 on the Billboard Pop chart while "Dirty Looks" made it only to number 90. "Stranger at My Door" had a modest peak at number 45 on the Billboard Country chart.

In summing up the album's modest success music critic Ian McFarlane noted:

Despite this Dirty Looks sold well enough in Canada to be certified Gold on October 13, 1983. On June 26, 2007 Dirty Looks and a later Newton album, Old Flame, were released on a "2 for 1" compact disc. The closing track on the album, "For Believers", was later reused with a new recording for Newton's 2007 album The Gift of Christmas.

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