With ex-member Tommy Ramone producing (credited as T. Erdelyi), the recording process was similar to that of the band's 1976 self-titled debut album.

Critics appreciated the band's return to earlier methods of writing, recording, and production, noting they had strayed from the pop music genre.

[7] Johnny Ramone recalled: As we got ready to make Too Tough To Die, we were focused in the same direction, and it made a difference.

Since this method did not yield the results which they were expecting, Sire Records contacted the producers of 1978's Road to Ruin: Ed Stasium and ex-band member Tommy Ramone.

In the photo, the band members are standing side-by-side underneath an underpass arch, with their dark silhouettes illuminated in the background with blue lighting and dry ice fog.

The photograph on the album cover was a "lucky accident" after DuBose's flashes failed to fire and he unintentionally shot the band members in silhouette.

Authors Scott Schinder and Andy Schwartz explained: With Tommy Ramone/Erdelyi and Ed Stasium returning as producers, the album was, to some degree, the Ramones' response to America's burgeoning hard-core punk scene, and did much to restore the band's musical credibility ... Too Tough to Die reclaimed the Ramone's original values of energy, catchiness, and brevity without resorting to retro pandering.

'[15]Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic wrote that the album uses the "big guitar riffs" featured on Subterranean Jungle and transfigures them to be "shorter and heavier.

"[16] The songs featured on the album are mostly rather short and have a considerably fast tempo, which was a typical quality of the band's early work.

[4] (The album also includes one of the longest Ramones studio recordings, "Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love)" on side two.)

[4][15] In his autobiography, Commando, Johnny Ramone stated the album title was in reference to a near fatal beating he received in 1983 that required emergency brain surgery.