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Recording and production
In early 1976, the Ramones began playing at several gigs, one of which, was seen by Linda Stein, Seymour Stein's ex-wife. Especially praising the song "53rd & 3rd," Linda later discussed the event with Seymore, which eventually lead up to the Ramones performing in front of Seymore, Craig Leon, and others from Sire Records. After the Ramones sealed the deal with Sire Recordes, they had organized several local shows. The band began recording in early February 1976. The band had a $20,000 budget (an advance from Sire Records), in which they bought needed equipment.

The Ramones took a temporary break from their performances, in order to prepare to begin recording at Plaza Sound studio. The album was produced by Craig Leon, and co-produced by drummer Tommy Ramone. Conflict arose between guitarist Johnny Ramone and Tommy Ramone, over the topic of whether to overdub, a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance. The main purpose of overdubbing is to give the recording a more "thick" sound. Tommy Ramone was planning on overdubbing, while Johnny Ramone refused to do it. The result of the argument was not to overdub. Despite its lack of airplay in its first few months, the song has been seen in the media on many occasions, and in 2009 it was named the 25th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.

Album cover
Before the album's release, the Ramones had planned to make an the album cover represent The Beatles's 1964 album Meet The Beatles!. John Holmstrom said that the original idea "came out horribly." The Ramones later met up with Roberta Bayley, at the time a photographer for Punk magazine, to make the album's cover. Holmstrom also noted that "getting the Ramones to pose was like pulling teeth," and also said it turned out to be "the classic Ramones album cover." The cover photo features (from left to right) Johnny Ramone, Tommy Ramone, Joey Ramone, and Dee Dee Ramone. Each stand against a brick wall and are in a straight line. Legs McNeil insists that "Tommy [is] standing on his tip-toes and Joey [is] hunched over a bit."

Lyrical and musical themes
"Blitzkrieg Bop," the album's opening track, was written by Tommy Ramone. Originally, Tommy named the track "Animal Hop", but after Dee Dee Ramone reviewed the lyrics, the changed the lyrics as well as the name. The song's original concept was "about kids going to a show and having a good time." After Dee Dee reviewed the song, he made the concept related to Nazism. "Beat on the Brat" was described by Dee Dee Ramone as a true story. "Joey saw some mother going after a kid with a bat in his lobby and wrote a song about it." "Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue" was written about the adolescents of Forest Hills, Queens, who constantly sought cheap thrills to cure their boredom. The Ramones later recorded the similarly themed song "Carbona Not Glue" for their second album, Leave Home. Dee Dee joked that after writing songs like "I Don't Wanna Go Down to the Basement", "I Don't Wanna Be Learned/I Don't Wanna Be Tamed", "I Don't Care", and "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You", "We didn't write a positive song until 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue.'" The song "53rd and 3rd" is about "Dee Dee turning tricks," said Johnny Ramone. The album's final track, "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World", refers to a Hitler Youth member.

Several songs from the album features backing vocals from several different guests. Mickey Leigh, Joey Ramone's brother, sings backing vocals on "Judy Is a Punk", "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", and in the bridge of "Blitzkrieg." Drummer Tommy Ramone sings backing vocals on "I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You", "Judy Is a Punk", and during the bridge of "Chainsaw." The album's executive producer, Rob Freeman, sings lead vocals for the last refrain of "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." The album does not feature overdubbing of any instruments. The album's length is twenty-nine minutes and four seconds, and features fourteen tracks.

Successes and Awards
In 1976 the album sold about 6,000 units and charted at number 111 on the US Billboard 200.

In the magazine Spin's special issue: 25 Years of Punk, which included a list of The 50 Most Essential Punk Records. The album was listed as number one on the list.

In 2005, the English music magazine Mojo included "Blitzkrieg Bop" in their list of "50 Best US Punk Rockers".

Promotion
In 1974 the band played 30 performances, nearly all at the New York-based club CBGB. All, but one of the band's 1975 gigs, were booked for New York City, with Waterbury, Connecticut being the only concert outside of New York. In early 1976, before the album's recording, the Ramones headlined for very few shows, usually opening for a cover band which played Aerosmith and Boston. At the Brockton, Massachusetts show with the cover band, the audience appeared extremely uninterested in the Ramones so Johnny swore off opening for bands. Following this, Fields booked several headlining shows around the Tri-state area, and they began playing frequently at gigs like CBGB and Max's Kansas City. The band performed with Blondie in New Jersey, and continued their tour to Boston, Massachusetts for three shows.

""Traveling was difficult. Most of the time, it was just Danny Fields, me, and the members of the band. We'd get two rooms in the hotel, three of us in each. They couldn't afford any more help at that point, so the band had to pitch in unloading the equipment. I'd play the drums during sound checks, while Tommy went out to the board and mixed the sound--and instructed the soundman not to fuck with the settings. We would enlist aid of any fan willing to help us load out at the end of the night.""

- Mickey Leigh

At the time, Joey's brother Leigh was road manager, stage manager, chauffeur, head of security. Vega, who contributed to the album packaging, helped out with the road crew as much as possible. Tommy's friend Monte Melnick occasionally helped with the audio output, but this was typically done by Leigh.

Following their debut album's release, the band performed at over sixty concerts for its promotion. While most of the gigs were booked in North America, two dates—July 4 and 5—were in London's Roundhouse venue and Dingwalls, respectively. Linda Stein pushed to make these event happen, setting up the band performances in London during the bicentennial of the signing of the United States Declaration of Independence. Fields relates: "On the two hundredth anniversary of our freedom, we were bringing Great Britain a gift that was forever going to disrupt their sensibilities." The band sold out for their first London performance, with an audience of roughly three thousand. Leigh described the Dingwalls gig to be very similar to performances at CBGB. Likewise, these sites would go on to feature other punk bands like The Clash and Sex Pistols. Over 100 concerts were performed the following year.

Reviews
http://www.rollingstone.com/music/artist/album/news/;kw=[artists,9620,40234,115712]

Ramones (album)

 * Nominator(s): Crowz  RSA  21:15, 23 December 2010 (UTC)

I am nominating this for featured article because I obviously think that it meets the criteria. The legendary album has gone from a start class article, to GA, and to the current version. The Peer reviewer can't find anything, all the ISBNs are valid, and the article is of good size. Thanks, Crowz  RSA  21:15, 23 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Oppose for the time being.
 *  Joey Ramone related: "Lisa came down to see us, she was blown away by us. She said that we changed her life, She started writing about us in Rock Scene, and then Lenny Kaye would write about us and we started getting more press like The Village Voice, word was getting out, and people starting coming down." - generally should put references for quotes straight after the sentence they appear in.
 * Craig Leon, who had seen them perform in the summer of 1975, and, even though they had not processed yet - it's not clear who Craig Leon is (I know there's a wikilink, but there should be something in the article too); and I don't understand what "they had not processed yet" means
 *  The band performed in front of record companies Blue Sky and Arista Records in order to get a record deal.[13] After the Ramones signed to Sire Records they organized several local shows - this whole paragraph confuses me: they are offered a deal, they refuse the deal, they perform for other record companies, and suddenly they're signed for Sire? This needs expansion.
 * I've only read the first section, but it is clear this hasn't been proof-read, let alone copyedited. I found double words and missing quote marks, and glancing at the start of the next section I already see an out-of-place capital letter ("In early 1975 They took a temporary break"). Skimming the rest of the article, it looks as if the hard work of adding and referencing the content has been done; however, to be FA-standard the facts need to be presented fluently and articulately. A bit of work and I'm sure this can get there.
 * Trebor (talk) 01:16, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay well all your comments have been fixed. Crowz  RSA  01:41, 24 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Okay, looking at the first two sections again:
 * which led to the Ramones auditioning with Seymour, Craig Leon, and others - "Seymour" was used a few words earlier which isn't great prose; who are these "others", did they work for Sire records?; was this audition the one which led to the offer of a contract for a single?
 * but would eventually sign again to Sire Records - is this the contract for the single? Or did they get offered a new contract? They record an album in the next section, so it needs to be clear that it's for Sire, and that Sire were okay with it.
 * This section still doesn't read very well and is a bit unclear. Do we know the order of the events? Did Sire immediately offer an album deal after the single deal was rejected? Did The Ramones audition for other companies because they didn't have an album deal at the time, or because they didn't like Sire? Trebor (talk) 20:55, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * In early 1975 they took a temporary break from their performances, in order to prepare to begin recording at Plaza Sound studio. - they started recording in early 1976, did their break last the full year? What preparations were they doing which lasted a year - technical issues, writing material, etc.?
 *  It also took $6,400 to record. - stubby sentence, try to incorporate it a bit better. You don't really need the "also" because the previous sentence was referring to time not money.
 * Joey related: "Some albums were costing a half-million dollars to make and taking two or three years to record. - was this said in pride that they were able to make it so cheaply and quickly? Or was it more frustration that they weren't able to spend that much?
 * Said in pride, but what should I do about that? Crowz  RSA  19:56, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * How do you know it was said in pride? I don't have the sources, so it's hard to make suggestions, sorry. Trebor (talk) 20:55, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I'm trying to find the book right now, I'm pretty sure that it says something. Crowz  RSA  17:32, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The recording process was similar to... - the sentence beginning with this changes tense at the end, and probably could be rewritten (or split) to make it a bit clearer. The following sentence has issues as well (The mixing of the recordings were also more modern techniques.)
 * The studio recording for the debut album has been expanded by Mickey Leigh and Craig Leon for percussion effects - I might be being stupid, but I don't understand what that means - expanded in what way? Trebor (talk) 16:13, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * That's just what the source says. Crowz  RSA  19:56, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Do you understand what it means? Trebor (talk) 20:55, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I think it means that the drum beats originally have a low velocity, so it was mixed to increase the velocity, therefore elongating how long the drum beat lasts. If that makes sense. Crowz  RSA  17:32, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I think everything has been fixed. Crowz  RSA  19:56, 26 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Expanded might imply an overdub. Does the source support additional "percussion effects" were recorded by Mickey Leigh and Craig Leon? — GabeMc (talk) 04:47, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * (unindent) Comments I haven't stricken out are ones I consider unresolved, and I have added additional comments for some of them. Looking further on in the article:
 * On January 6, 2004, Rhino Entertainment released "Blitzkrieg Bop" was released with "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker". - doesn't make sense.
 * "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" was released in October 1976 as a seven inch single. The single was released with the tracks "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", "California Sun", and "I Dont Wanna Walk Around with You" - it's hardly surprising that "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" was released with the track "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" on it - can be written better.
 * Several concerts were performed both before and after the album's release - does this "several" include the "thirty" gigs mentioned later on? If so, several seems a bit misleading. The whole sentence could go without losing much.
 * Nearly all of the gigs booked for the band in 1975 were in New York City, with Waterbury, Connecticut being the only concert outside of New York. - at least half the sentence is redundant, strip it down.
 * The album's lyrics consist of different concepts and structures. - does this just mean the lyrics aren't all about the same thing? I'm dubious that this sentence adds a great deal.
 * On second twenty of the song - does this mean "at the twentieth second"? Possibly worth clarifying.
 * and according to Nicholas Rombes - who is this guy? Why should I care about his opinion? Needs explaining.
 * The piece is resolved in the same way as the seconds twenty to thirty–three. - again, it is unclear what this means. Are the chords the same? Are the lyrics?
 * That's as far as I've got for the time being. I'll suggest again that you try to take a step back and reread what you've written, since there are still issues with fluency and understandability. I'm finding quite a few issues without looking too hard; a more thorough reviewer could probably find more. Regards, Trebor (talk) 03:24, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Thanks for your comments, they've all been fixed. Crowz  RSA  04:36, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Dab/EL check - no dabs or dead external links; 2 external redirects which have been fixed. -- Pres N  06:09, 24 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Comment - It seems the notes section is actually the references section and references section is the notes, or citations. Also, the refs section uses 10-digit for some refs and 13-digit for others, according to Template:Cite book: "Please use the 13-digit ISBN where possible." — GabeMc (talk) 02:33, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Fixed


 * Can we get an WP:OTRS on File:Ramones_Toronto_1976.jpg? Fasach Nua (talk) 18:06, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I have very little knowledge on OTRS tags. I really only know that they are templates that go on images. Crowz  RSA  19:54, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * To get images of this quality and during this era, while not unknown is rare, and we occasionally have users upload content and tag it as free when it is not, I would like to have confidence that this image is correctly licensed, the simplest way to do this is for the uploader to submit an OTRS ticket Fasach Nua (talk) 21:31, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I notified the uploader
 * Image review pending (FA Criteria 3) Fasach Nua (talk) 11:26, 2 January 2011 (UTC)


 * Query given that there are multiple albums with the same name, does this article title lack WP:PRECISION? Fasach Nua (talk) 19:03, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * User:SilkTork recently moved it from Ramones (Ramones album) to Ramones (album) probably because the only other album named Ramones is a cover album on the Ramones by another band. SilkTork didn't give a reason in their edit summary. Crowz  RSA  19:54, 27 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments - Cites to this book; Nicholas, Rombes (2005). Ramones (33⅓). Continuum. ISBN 9780826416711., use 2006 as the date, while the ref states 2005. — GabeMc (talk) 23:29, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Also, the ref: "Please Kill Me: The Uncensored Oral History of Punk", uses a specific date of April 13, 2006 while the other refs state just the year. — GabeMc (talk) 23:33, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * The refs should be listed alphabetically. — GabeMc (talk) 23:48, 27 December 2010 (UTC)
 * These have all been fixed. Crowz  RSA  01:11, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * I meant alphabetically by author not title, I went ahead and fixed this, hope you don't mind. — GabeMc (talk) 02:56, 28 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Comment - There is some inconsistency in the cite templates used in the article. For example some cites to Leigh, Mickey (2009). I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Family Memoir. Touch Stone. ISBN 9780743252164, are Harvnb, while others are not. The article should be consistent throughout, whatever style you prefer. — GabeMc (talk) 03:11, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * Fixed Crowz  RSA  04:36, 28 December 2010 (UTC)

Oppose This article needs a top-to-bottom rewrite; it has problems more fundamental than those that can be fixed by a mere copy-edit or two:
 * A long and rambly lead with abrupt sentences completely disconnected from one another. Just take a look at the third paragraph:
 * The album features several themes, including Nazism, violence, male prostitution and drug use. It has fourteen tracks and is twenty-nine minutes and four seconds long. The group covered the song "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez. Several of the tracks have backing vocals which were sung by Mickey Leigh, Tommy Ramone, and executive producer/engineer Rob Freeman. The album received very high ratings by reviewers, with Allmusic and Rolling Stone, both rewarding it with a maximum rating of five out of five stars. Robert Christgau gave the album an A, writing "For me, it blows everything else off the radio."

Apart from these there's the long list of grammatical errors ("Soon after the demos release"), MOS errors ("heard separately on the stereo channels — electric bass on the left"), overlinking (punk rock, Rolling Stone and Allmusic are all linked twice in the lead) and, I suspect, incorrectly quoted text ("with women sitting aroing"), among other things.—indopug (talk) 18:38, 28 December 2010 (UTC)
 * No differentiation between contemporary reviews (i.e. from 1976) and retrospectives. The Reception section seems to suggest that Ramones was critically acclaimed upon its release in 1976 by quoting a review from the website Allmusic about the album's merits.
 * Content in the Reception and Legacy sections is confused and overlapping. Why is the Billboard chart position mentioned in both sections? Why are four retrospective "greatest album ever" lists from the 90s and 00s in the Reception section, and one in Legacy? And does that long quote from the Rock Hall discuss the band or the album?
 * Please see In_Utero_(album) for how to write a Composition section. Avoid a song-by-song discussion in favour of lyrical and musical themes found throughout the record. This is especially true for the music on Ramones, as most of the songs are so similar-sounding, and hence don't really merit individual discussion.
 * Unreliable sources: Super Seventies, Foo Archive, Rockometer.

I would love to see Ramones on the main page of wikipedia, but this article does need a complete rewrite. The introductory paragraph should be enough, from the article, that it suffices for a read about the topic, namely the album. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramones_(album) pre-signing by Sire, Lisa Robinson popularizing the band, the band's potential manager, a pre-Ramones demo and its release, then the band "performing under the Sire Records company," there's got to be something about the album in the lead. This album was a major influence on American punk and other music, yet there is no sense of this whatsoever, until a glimmer of hope erupts in the fourth paragraph. As prominent as Lisa Robinson is in the first paragraph, the article might as well be about her, not the album. And who are Danny Fields and Seymour Stein that they deserve mentioning in the lead paragraph without any discussion of who they are?

Who cares how much it cost to make the album? Oh, wait, back then it cost a lot more than that to produce a cheap single, that's not much money. The costs are meaningless without any comparison. Cool that the cover art is so great, one of my all time favorites, but that's just one more thing that's primary to the music, and, really, that's what an album is: music.

Then the next section. Robinson wrote about the Ramones in Rock Scene, but the fact that she was an editor at twice-wikilinked Hit Parader takes more prominence than whatever she wrote in Rock Scence.

What are ""progressive" force bands from Europe under contract"? The instruments took three days to do what? Or it took three days to record the instrumental tracks? Is that unusually long? No, it's a very short time. The Joey comment is good, but it needs backed up. This was discussed in the music industry for a long time, and is still discussed today, how little time and money was spent for an album of such long-lasting impact on the music industry.

The Beatles comparison sentences needed a direct citation to one of them. What's the significance of using the same mic locations as orchestras? Live orchestra recordings? Studio orchestra recordings? How's it different from rock recordings? What are "four-track recording representation of the devices," of what "devices?" What does that mean? The album was "expanded by Mickey Leigh and Craig Leon for percussion effects"? What does that mean, they added more percussion tracks? Whose?

Who's Arturo Vega? What's a passport photo machine?

"In 1974, the band performed at thirty gigs, that were nearly all at CBGB. All but one of the band's 1975 gigs were booked for New York City, with Waterbury, Connecticut being the only concert outside of New York. In 1976, over seventy concerts were performed, each to support Ramones. There were over a hundred concerts performed in 1977 by the band.[28]"

It's a recitation of numbers. About gigs. Not about the album.

Beat on the Brat was sung in a video camera mode. This makes no sense.

"Ramones was released April 23, 1976.[55][56][57][58]" I'm glad we've confirmed the release date with 4 sources, to be certain, but how about a single authoritative citation?

The Reception section is difficult to follow and jumbled up with contemporaneous and later reviews. Most of the article is not ordered well. I don't think it's close to a FA, as much as I would love to see it on the main page. --Kleopatra (talk) 01:39, 29 December 2010 (UTC)


 * Comments by Tbhotch ™ © Happy New Year 06:51, 30 December 2010 (UTC) (I started many days ago, some issues maybe are already resolved.)
 * General
 * WP:ALT is pretty bad for the cover and band's image. According to ALT give poor descriptions to images is not helpful.


 * Infobox
 * US & UK -> WP:&


 * Lead
 * American punk rock band the Ramones, who are widely cited as the first punk rock band. -> repeated twice in the same line, requesting synonyms.
 * No sources in the WP:Lead
 * the album the in February -> typo
 * Leon, and co-produced by drummer Tommy Ramone -> Wikilink them
 * author of the 33⅓ book Ramones -> Why it is linked to Book sources?


 * Background
 * Link the band, never linked after lead
 * Joey Ramone related... -> who was Ramone?
 * and said that they would produce -> you can ommit "that"
 * Arista Records -> link it


 * Recording and production
 * Joey related -> synonyms needed
 * In 2004, Craig Leon -> craig is already mentioned.
 * Tommy Ramone was planning -> ommit his surname, already mentioned
 * The album was produced by Craig Leon, -> redundant, already mentioned "Producer Craig Leon, who had seen..."
 * co-produced by drummer Tommy Ramone -> overlinked
 * The studio recording for the debut album has been expanded -> has been?
 * Nicholas Rombes said that the production's quality -> Nicholas Rombes, which is/was notable due to, said the production's quality


 * Photography and cover art
 * to the 1964 Beatles -> overlinked


 * Promotion
 * on Ramones: "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". "Blitzkrieg Bop" was released -> on Ramones: "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend". The first was released
 * and "I Dont Wanna Walk Around with You" as b-sides -> consistency needed.
 * All but one of the band's 1975 gigs -> All, but one of the band's 1975 gigs,


 * Composition
 * Johnny said that the when writing the -> typo
 * "Blitzkrieg Bop", -> overlinked
 * Tommy Ramone. -> Overlinked
 * New York City. -> idem as above
 * —Joey Ramone -> idem
 * Joey saw some mother going after a kid with a bat -> is me or this is grammatically incorrect, should not be "a mother"?
 * one minute and 32 -> consistency with you numbers
 * the slowest and the only romantically colored piece on the album, -> POV?
 * The text has themes of irony and humor and depiction of violence -> The text has themes of irony, humor and depiction of violence.
 * piece pays homage to love songs in pop music acts of the 1960s. -> piece pays homage to love songs in pop music acts of the 1960s.
 * The album's length is twenty-nine minutes and four seconds, and features fourteen tracks.[14] -> shouldn't go first?


 * Reception
 * Specify why Allmusic is two times.
 * Ramones was released April 23, 1976.[55][56][57][58] -> Irrelevant for the section
 * Reviewing for Allmusic -> Not a magazine and overlinked
 * Jeff Tamarkin of Allmusic -> as above
 * was ranked thirty-three in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums of All Time."[62] -> was ranked thirty-three in Rolling Stone's ''The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time".[62]
 * In Spin's 1995 Alternative Record -> In Spin's 1995 Alternative Record


 * Legacy
 * the 33⅓ book Ramones wrote -> why is linked
 * The album made little commercial impact, reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart. Neither of the album's singles, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", ever charted.[69] -> many issues: 1) Full of POV that makes you feel like "poor album, it was not successful" 2) reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart was mentioned above 3) Overlinked


 * Track listing
 * I was wondering why it has references (for the original LP only)


 * Chart positions
 * Alphabetical order
 * Swedish charts -> why it is italiced and why link to Sweden?


 * References
 * All books need where they were published
 * ISBN of Ramones: The Complete Twisted History. is wrong, that is from I Slept With Joey Ramone


 * Notes
 * Ref 1 has a typo (ramones)
 * Ref 14 need the format in which Ramones was released
 * Ref 24 -> if it is a book or a magazine need much more information, such as authors, ISBN/ISSN and page(s)
 * Ref 26 -> AllMusic. --> Allmusic, and need its publisher
 * Ref 33 needs an update on its title
 * Ref 54, 60, 75 and 76 as above
 * Ref 63, 65, 66 need publisher
 * Ref 77 -> reimprove it.

Oppose, sadly. The article, especially the lead, is very disjointed, with short disconnected 'bullet-point' like sentences. ''It has fourteen tracks and is twenty-nine minutes and four seconds long. The group covered the song "Let's Dance" by Chris Montez. Several of the tracks have backing vocals which were sung by Mickey Leigh, Tommy Ramone, and executive producer/engineer Rob Freeman.''. The legacy section seems underdeveloped, given the lasting impact of the album. Ceoil 15:11, 1 January 2011 (UTC)

Track listing

 * Original release


 * 2001 Expanded Edition CD

rec
Ramones was released on April 23, 1976 through Sire Records and was well received by critics. Paul Nelson of Rolling Stone wrote that the album is similar to early rock and roll, and is constructed using rhythm tracks of great intensity. Jeff Tamarkin of AllMusic said that the album ignited the punk rock era, writing: "rock's mainstream didn't know what hit it." Critic Joe S. Harrington declared that the album was a huge landmark for music history with his proclamation of "[it] split the history of rock 'n' roll in half." Theunis Bates, a writer for Time magazine, summed the album up with: "Ramones stripped rock back to its basic elements ... lyrics are very simple, boiled-down declarations of teen lust and need." Bates also said that it "is the ultimate punk statement." Charles M. Young, an employee for the Rolling Stone, regarded Ramones as "one of the funniest rock records ever made and, if punk continues to gain momentum, a historic turning point."

Music critic Robert Christgau gave the album an "A" and continued with a positive review, specifically writing about the album's themes and sound quality. It was awarded five out of five stars by AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine, who said the album "begins at a blinding speed and never once over the course of its 14 songs does it let up." He also noted that the album is about "speed, hooks, stupidity, and simplicity."

Despite this critical acclaim, Ramones was not as successful commercially. It only reached number 111 on the US Billboard 200, and sold 6,000 units in its first year. Outside the US, the album peaked at number 48 on the Swedish Sverigetopplistan chart.