With lyrical material written on their nonstop tours over the previous years, as well as completed songs, the band recorded with Trombino in sessions that lasted for five weeks.

During production, the members of Blink-182 were plagued with difficulties only made worse by the rushed schedule: bassist Mark Hoppus and guitarist Tom DeLonge, co-vocalists for the band, were having vocal problems and Raynor had to record his drum tracks with injuries to both feet.

[1] Throughout 1995 and 1996, the trio vigorously toured nonstop and grew in popularity, most notably in Australia, where audiences embraced the band's irreverent sense of humor and stage shows.

[3] Overall, Blink felt they were nothing but honest regarding their ambitions: "I try and tell kids, 'The Clash, Sex Pistols and the Ramones did it, so how come we can't?"

The band were afforded more time to record than previous endeavors, and were listening to music such as Jawbreaker, Bad Religion and Lagwagon, which influenced the album.

[11][12] The band were initially slated to record with another producer,[13] but picked Trombino because of his familiarity with the studio itself, his major-label knowhow, and the work he had done on Jimmy Eat World's Static Prevails (1996).

Bassist Mark Hoppus had just bought a new video camera and he filmed stunts with guitarist Tom DeLonge on the burnt landscape in spare time.

"[11] The group ate lunch nearly each day at Sombrero, a local Mexican restaurant namedropped in "Josie", and Chinese for dinner from Encinitas' Pick Up Stix.

[19] For the final touches, Unwritten Law frontman Scott Russo donated a few vocal tracks to "Josie", and Trombino let Blink-182 record a couple of jokes between songs using a sound-effects machine he owned.

"[28] Billboard magazine's Doug Reece described it as "a collection of machine-gun-quick, energetic punk songs—sometimes with a puerile slant—about such topics as girlfriends, broken hearts, and fights with one's parents.

[22] The album's guitar tone has been interpreted as scratchy and displaying a "blown-out quality that's in constant combat with the vastly more refined vocal hooks."

[29] The popularity of the trio in Australia has been cited as the sign that alerted major record companies of Dude Ranch's commercial potential; at the time, the album had spent five months on the charts and the band became famous for their stage show while on the 1997 Warped Tour.

[40] MCA's marketing strategy involved waiting until after the band's Warped Tour performances wrapped in order to have a retail story to back up radio promotion efforts.

[29] The label first serviced "Dammit" in August 1997 and several SoCal stations were quick to pick up the single, finding it to be a good match alongside Green Day and The Offspring radio hits.

The year-end Billboard Airplay Monitor Report (BDS) stats indicated that "Dammit" earned top spins at many key radio stations.

[45] Dude Ranch, which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on February 9, 1998, yielded three more singles, which did not attract the same commercial success as "Dammit".

"Although it didn't have the impact of "Dammit", it hardly mattered as the former was still receiving heavy play on radio and TV stations across the nation", wrote journalist Joe Shooman.

[51] The unreleased Dude Ranch cut "I Won't Be Home for Christmas" was released as an international single in 2001, only successful in Canada, but charting for six non-consecutive weeks at number one.

Rolling Stone regarded Dude Ranch as the moment "the trio focused and refined their pop-punk sound," summarizing the record's themes: "bassist Mark Hoppus plays the straight man, singing sturdily and deadpan, while the squeakier-voiced guitarist Tom DeLonge bleats urgently about romance gone wrong.

[60] In 2011, a writer for Total Guitar referred to the record as "a genuine modern punk classic,"[19] while Scott Heisel of Alternative Press called it a "quantum leap in sonic quality and songwriting.

"[61] Guitar.com writer Huw Baines writes that the band on Dude Ranch "[settle] into a songwriting mode that was more focused, lean and representative of what they were trying to achieve.

"[69] In addition to the hefty touring schedule, the trio grew tired of other commitments, including interviews and TV appearances due to the success of "Dammit".

[69] Raynor, who was at the center of this drama, had been commenting of his desire to attend college for years, and had been taking homework out with him on tour to try and complete his high school diploma.

Lindsay Zoladz provides context for its place in the band's canon in a 2019 piece for The Ringer: "For a lot of pop-punk fans who felt the whiplash of Blink's sudden late-'90s transformation from Warped Tour upstarts to genuine TRL heartthrobs, Dude Ranch came to develop a mythic, almost Edenic glow.

"[79] Trevor Kelley from Alternative Press credited it with "reigniting" the pop punk movement while calling it a "huge source of inspiration for a new generation of bands," such as Midtown and New Found Glory.

at the Disco guitarist Ryan Ross has cited the album as his first influence: "I wanted to learn how to play like Tom DeLonge [on Dude Ranch].

[84] In a 20th anniversary piece celebrating the album, Maria Sherman, writing for MTV News, commented that on Dude Ranch the trio "found a subversive way to embrace lameness as something to be commended—a language all outsiders could understand.

"[1] Vice columnist Emma Garland writes: "Dude Ranch remains a formative and timeless classic [...] the perfect segue from [Cheshire Cat to their 1999 effort Enema of the State], capturing Blink-182 right on the precipice of self-discovery.

[86][87] It's Never Over Til It's Done, a charity album supporting Black transgender communities, was released in 2020 and contained covers by bands like Joyce Manor, Adult Mom, and Rozwell Kid.

[88] Another "concept cover album" by American musician Cameron Hurley (under the name new.wav) saw release in 2023, this time in the high-energy and sonic style of the band's later work with Barker and producer Jerry Finn.