Sky Saxon wrote "Pushin' Too Hard" while sitting in the front seat of a car waiting for his girlfriend to finish grocery shopping at a supermarket.

[10] The song contains two chords which alternate throughout, as well as instrumental breaks featuring an electric piano solo—played by Daryl Hooper—and a guitar solo played by Jan Savage.

[13][14] Though the song did not chart initially, a Los Angeles disc jockey began playing it extensively following the release of the band's self-titled debut album in April 1966.

[15] With the title having been changed to "Pushin' Too Hard", a new single was issued in July 1966 and the song debuted on the Billboard Hot 100 chart in December.

Allmusic's Richie Unterberger wrote that "'Pushin' Too Hard' is one of the songs most commonly cited when people are trying to celebrate or denigrate 1960s garage rock, and sometimes championed for precisely the same reasons as others put it down, though in time the critical balance tended toward praising the tune rather than dumping on it.

[31] In the second-season episode of Lost titled "The Whole Truth", Jack and Locke listen to the song while Ana Lucia interrogates Henry.

Frank Zappa parodied the chorus of "Pushin' Too Hard" on the song "Sy Borg" from his 1979 rock opera album Joe's Garage.

[34] Brazilian Jovem Guarda singer Wanderléa recorded, in 1967, a version of the song, called Vou lhe Contar, with portuguese lyrics written by Rossini Pinto.

[36] Experimental rock group Pere Ubu included a live version of the song on their 1996 box set Datapanik in Year Zero.