[3] After the band removed its catalog from Lookout due to unpaid royalties, the album remained out of print until it was reissued on vinyl in remastered form by Eccentric Pop Records in 2015 to commemorate its 25th anniversary.

Originally called Sweet Baby Jesus, the band is often regarded as one of the founders of the punk scene in the Bay Area centered around the 924 Gilman Street venue in Berkeley.

[4][5] Although the band played live frequently during this time, its music was rarely recorded, only appearing on compilation albums such as Maximumrocknroll's Turn It Around!.

In November 1987, the band had decided to break up, as vocalist Dallas Denery wanted to go to graduate school and guitarist Matt Buenrostro intended to emigrate to England.

Even though they were one of us, totally, somehow there was just no badness to it at all",[7] while Lookout Records co-owner Larry Livermore said "Maybe it was because Sweet Baby had never specifically cast themselves in the role of 'punks', or that they were such nice guys it was hard to imagine getting mad at them.

"[8] The band then dropped the "Jesus" from its name, as Buenrostro and drummer Sergie Loobkoff reportedly did not like it,[5] and began recording the album "live" at Dancing Dog Studios in Emeryville, California in late 1988.

[1] Afterwards, the group started laying down basic tracks at Sergay's Recording Emporium in Berkeley with only Buenrostro's backing vocals and Loobkoff's drums; this saved the band money as it was cheaper than Dancing Dog's rates.

[7] Buenrostro, however, would say that "with a few exceptions, like having multiple guitar tracks and a consistent drum tempo, we felt like the final version was not too far removed from if we had played a live set perfectly" and described the recording as a "blast".

"[9] In a retrospective review, Stewart Mason of AllMusic called the music "bubblegum punk as goofily sweet as the band name and album title".

[3] While acknowledging the influence of the Buzzcocks on the music, Mason also claimed that Sweet Baby "owe more to the unfettered pop glee of the British Invasion bands (and for that matter, the Rutles and the sweeter side of the Ramones) than to their proto-grunge contemporaries".

According to Lookout president Chris Appelgren, the deal with Ruby was "pretty easy, we just had to pay a royalty to license it as well as contact the Warner Bros. folks to see if they were interested in doing their own reissue.