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Blitzkrieg Bop

Field	Value
name	Blitzkrieg Bop
cover	Ramones - Blitzkrieg Bop cover.jpg
border	no
type	Single
artist	Ramones
album	Ramones
B-side	"Havana Affair"
released	February 1976
recorded	January 1976
* Punk rock<ref name	"ritland"
* pop punk<ref>{{cite web	url	http://diffuser.fm/best-pop-punk-songs/	title=10 Best Pop-Punk Songs	work=Diffuser.fm	last=Robinson	first=Joe	date=January 23, 2013	access-date=January 11, 2019}}
length	2:12
label	Sire/ABC
* Dee Dee Ramone<ref>{{cite web	title	ASCAP ACE - Search Results	url= http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?requesttimeout=300&mode=results&searchstr=320229212&search_in=i&search_type=exact&search_det=t,s,w,p,b,v&results_pp=30&start=1	website= ASCAP	archive-url= https://archive.today/20120530084601/http://www.ascap.com/ace/search.cfm?requesttimeout=300&mode=results&searchstr=320229212&search_in=i&search_type=exact&search_det=t,s,w,p,b,v&results_pp=30&start=1	archive-date= May 30, 2012	date= May 30, 2012	url-status= dead }}
producer	Craig Leon
next_title	I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend
next_year	1976
misc

| B-side = "Havana Affair"

Punk rock
pop punk
Tommy Ramone
Dee Dee Ramone "Blitzkrieg Bop", titled "The Blitzkrieg Bop!!" on its single release, is the debut single by American punk rock band Ramones, released in February 1976. It was the opening track on the band's self-titled debut album.

Although its composition was credited to the band as a whole, the song was written by drummer Tommy Ramone (music and lyrics) and bassist Dee Dee Ramone (lyrics). The song's "big dumb chant" ("Hey! Ho! Let's go!") became a global rallying cry at sporting events.

"Blitzkrieg Bop" was number 92 on the 2004 Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 31 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, and in 2008 Rolling Stone placed it number 18 of the top 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time.

Origin and meaning

The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called "Animal Hop").

The precise meaning and subject matter of the song is, unlike many of The Ramones' other early compositions, somewhat vague and obscure. Tommy Ramone said it was the story of the young audience attending a rock concert ("they're forming in a straight line", "are losing their minds", "are shouting in the back now"). Blitzkrieg is a reference to the German World War II tactic blitzkrieg, which means "lightning war" (fast attack). Dee Dee also changed one other line: the original third verse had the line "shouting in the back now", but Dee Dee changed it to "shoot 'em in the back now".

The idea for a chant at the beginning of the song came from the 1973 Bay City Rollers hit song Saturday Night, which begins with the chant "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night"; Tommy Ramone wanted the Ramones to have a similarly catchy chant. The lyrics "Hey ho, let's go" were inspired by the line "High, low, tipsy toe" from the 1963 song "Walking the Dog" by Rufus Thomas, and specifically the Rolling Stones' cover of the song; the band had enjoyed mocking Mick Jagger's pronunciation of the line, which they thought sounded more like "hey ho". Tommy stated later that he "came up with the chant walking home from the grocery store carrying a bag of groceries."

Reception

Cash Box said the song had "a hard rock style, crudely fashioned, yet infectious in its energy" and said that "the tune is powerful, and the band's street punk stance is all part of the music." Record World said it has "a wall of sound effect and [spouts] punk lyrics".

Legacy and influence

While the Ramones' self-titled debut album, which was released on April 23, 1976, is considered to have established the musical genre of punk rock, Michael Hann pointed out that the album's derivative and preceding single, "Blitzkrieg Bop", was therefore "the first artefact of punk rock"; that is, the first product by the record industry of that genre.

Certifications

Bibliography

Bessman, Jim (1993). Ramones: An American Band (New York: St. Martin's).

References

(January 11, 2023). "The 25 Best Punk Songs to Help You Stick it to the Man".
Bradley, Michael. (March 15, 2016). "The 10 best punk rock singles, by The Undertones' Michael Bradley".
Robinson, Joe. (January 23, 2013). "10 Best Pop-Punk Songs". [[Diffuser.fm]].
Smith, Troy. (March 7, 2022). "The 100 greatest pop punk songs of all time". cleveland.com.
(May 30, 2012). "ASCAP ACE - Search Results".
Bessman (1993), p. 48.
Hann, Michael. "Blitzkrieg Bop — how the Ramones’ big, dumb chant went global".
"500 Greatest Songs of All Time: Ramones, 'Blitzkrieg Bop'".
"Rolling Stone's 100 Greatest Guitar Songs Of All Time".
Hughes, Rob. (July 14, 2014). "The Story Behind The Song: Blitzkrieg Bop by The Ramones". Louder.
Laitio-Ramone, Jari-Pekka. (May 19, 2009). "Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives". Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone.
(May 22, 1976). "CashBox Singles Reviews". Cash Box.
(May 29, 1976). "Single Picks".

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1976-debut-singles 1976-songs abc-records-singles american-pop-punk-songs ramones-songs sire-records-singles song-recordings-produced-by-craig-leon songs-about-world-war-ii songs-written-by-dee-dee-ramone songs-written-by-tommy-ramone

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