Ramones: Rocket to Russia [SIRE/RHINO/WARNER]

Why you'll love it

This remastered reissue gives the band's biggest-sounding 70s record a fresh polish. Rolling Stone placed it on its 500 Greatest Albums of All Time list, and it carries "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" and "Rockaway Beach."

This edition

• Remastered
• Original 14-track album
• Booklet included

About the album

Sire handed the Ramones a proper budget for album three, somewhere between $25,000 and $30,000, and the band spent it on sounding bigger. Johnny wanted a record that sounded better than the Sex Pistols, and engineer Ed Stasium told him that would be no problem. Tommy Ramone co-produced it with Tony Bongiovi, his last album behind the drum kit.

The songs lean further into surf and bubblegum than before. "Cretin Hop" is a love letter to the fans, Dee Dee's "Rockaway Beach" tips its hat to the Beach Boys, and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" is pure pop in a leather jacket. They cover "Do You Wanna Dance?" and "Surfin' Bird," and "Teenage Lobotomy" and "We're a Happy Family" keep the jokes dark and fast. Nearly every song carries a sense of humour, and the whole thing runs on Johnny's buzzsaw downstrokes.

Danny Fields shot the cover in an East Village alley, and John Holmstrom's back cover cartoon now hangs in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The working title was Get Well, which is the sort of advice the Ramones always gave in two-minute doses.

Also at Kops: more Ramones on vinyl · browse Punk

Tracklist

Listen

On Sire / Rhino (cat# 8122-79327-0), a reissue of the 1977 album.