Following the release of their album Busted in 1990, Cheap Trick left Epic Records and signed a ten-album deal with Warner Bros.

"[2] The majority of the material on Woke Up with a Monster was newly written, with the remainder being unused songs which were brought in from previous projects.

Templeman discovered the song after hearing a soundcheck recording of it on a tape which drummer Bun E. Carlos brought into the studio one day.

"[4][5] By the time Woke Up with a Monster was released, internal changes within Warner resulted in the loss of some of the team who had signed Cheap Trick to the label.

In a 2002 interview, Nielsen said, "When we did Woke Up With A Monster on Warner Bros., we were signed by Lenny Waronker and Mo Ostin, two of the biggest guys in the business.

"[1] On its release, Billboard felt Woke Up with a Monster "isn't the band at its best", but added "there are flashes of [their] earlier edge" in the title track and "Ride the Pony".

[15] Troy J. Augusto of Cash Box praised the album for being a return to the "sharper, more rocking edge, similar to your favorite late-70's/early-80's Cheap Trick".

He added that songs such as "My Gang", "You're All I Wanna Do" and "Girlfriends" "show a recharged, tightly-wound band back in peak form".

[16] Tom Sinclair of Rolling Stone considered "too much" of Woke Up with a Monster to be "simply well-crafted pop metal", with the band's previous attempts at commercialising their sound still evident in many of the tracks.

However, he added the album was not a "total washout", citing "You're All I Wanna Do" as a "tidy power-pop number", and "My Gang" and "Girlfriends" as having "some of the old flair".

[17] Chuck Eddy of Entertainment Weekly was dismissive of the album, describing it as "more of the perfunctory mush Cheap Trick settled for in the '80s: some chirpy harmonies and empty boogie, a leadoff stomp that rips off '70s glam icon Gary Glitter, but none of the goofy guitar solos or deadpan lyrics of yore.