With Metallica scheduled to play the 1987
Monsters of Rock festival at
Castle Donington, the band's UK label
Vertigo Records suggested that they release new material to mark the occasion. Initial songwriting attempts with new bassist
Jason Newsted resulted only in a demo for "
Blackened", and vocalist/guitarist
James Hetfield subsequently broke his arm skateboarding and was unable to play guitar for several weeks. Given these obstacles, the band decided to record covers of some of their favorite songs rather than work on new material. Newsted utilized his earlier experience as a construction worker to
soundproof Lars Ulrich's garage in
El Cerrito, California, where the band would rehearse the material prior to recording. The original
cassette release included a sticker stating "If they try to charge more, STEAL IT!" The title of the official American CD release was amended to
The $9.98 CD, as the retail price of CDs was much higher than cassette; other countries (such as Australia) still displayed
The $5.98 E.P. with a sticker stating that this is the "title" and not the price. "The Wait" was omitted from the UK pressings in order to conform to local music-industry rules regarding the length of EPs.
The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited was out of print from 1989 to 2018, and the original release is considered a collector's item. All five tracks were included on the 1998 double album
Garage Inc. along with other covers and new recordings. The cover of the CD also was used as a basis for the
Garage Inc. back cover, which shows the original
Garage Days cover with pictures of the band members' faces, , taped over the original faces, along with
Garage Inc. covering the original album name. In 2018,
The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited was reissued under Metallica's own
Blackened Recordings label and also was made available in
vinyl format. ==Track listing==