20. Something to Believe In (1986)
Perhaps the last Ramones song to sound heartfelt came on 1986’s Animal Boy. Joey Ramone’s voice was an acquired taste, but for those who loved it, he had a unique ability to communicate vulnerability. No hiding behind cartoon lyrics here – this was raw.
19. Oh, Oh, I Love Her So (1977)
In some ways, a minor Ramones track, but it captures the band at their absolute brightest on second album Leave Home. It’s no more than a high-power pastiche of early 60s teen pop, but made with such love, down to that final sprannng! of guitar.
18. Psycho Therapy (1983)
The 1983 album Subterranean Jungle sounded awful – terrible mix and production – and Psycho Therapy would have been higher on this list had it appeared on any other record. It’s Ramones by numbers, but brutal, edgy and thrilling.
17. Daytime Dilemma (Dangers of Love) (1984)
Through the 80s, Ramones’ greatest strength was Joey’s ability to summon up a couple of perfect pop songs for each album, many of which would have been woeful otherwise. At four and a half minutes, this was Ramones’ Lord of the Rings track in length, but a pop-rock masterclass.
16. Mama’s Boy (1984)
Too Tough to Die was seen as Ramones’ response to the hardcore bands they had inspired. The album opened not with speed, but with the menacing slow churn of Mama’s Boy, on which, for the first time, the band sounded threatening rather than madcap.
15. The KKK Took My Baby Away (1981)
Joey’s girlfriend started going out with Johnny Ramone. Joey wrote a song about it and the pair didn’t speak for the remaining 15 years the band were together. Admittedly, comparing your Republican bandmate to the Ku Klux Klan was harsh, and it’s hard not to feel that therapy might have been more productive.
14. You Should Never Have Opened That Door (1977)
Stuck for a song subject? Offer advice to horror movie characters! It worked on their debut album’s I Don’t Wanna Go Down to the Basement, and it worked even better here, with Johnny’s great riff and Dee Dee Ramone’s sunny harmonies.
13. I Wanna Be Sedated (1978)
By album four, Road to Ruin, Ramones – with new drummer Marky Ramone – were changing their sound a little. Not hugely – in subject and approach this is very much a Ramones song. But the arrangements were getting fancier, the hooks a little more polished.
12. We’re a Happy Family (1977)
Ramones were mocked for their apparent stupidity, but managing to rhyme Queens, refried beans, magazines and Thorazines didn’t seem too dim, not least because those four words appeared to encompass the band’s entire horizon.
11. Bonzo Goes to Bitburg (1985)
The angriest, most politically committed song Ramones ever wrote was a response to President Ronald Reagan visiting a cemetery in which SS soldiers were interred. Joey and Dee Dee wrote it, but Republican Johnny insisted it be renamed My Brain Is Hanging Upside Down for the Animal Boy album.
10. Judy Is a Punk (1976)
Ninety seconds, a headlong rush to the end with Johnny’s guitar buzzing like hornets in your ear, and still time for Joey to commentate on the structure of the song as he sang it: “Second verse, same as the first … Third verse, different from the first.”
9. Questioningly (1978)
Between them, Dee Dee, Joey and Johnny came up with this heartbreak ballad, played on acoustic guitars like an old Jackie DeShannon number. And how’s this for twisting words to force a rhyme? “Looked at her close, forced her into view / Yes, I said, you’re a girl that I once may have knew.”
8. Sheena Is a Punk Rocker (1977)
In which Ramones, indulging Joey’s dreams of trying to sound like Phil Spector, go all out for a hit in punk’s high summer of 1977, guitar overdubs and all. In the UK, it reached No 22, but it got no higher than No 81 in the US. You simply can’t trust the public.
7. Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment (1977)
Mental health was a recurring theme in Ramones’ songs. Joey and Dee Dee both suffered with mental illness, so the latter writing this for the former to sing was apt. But Ramones never felt sorry for themselves, even when dripping with sarcasm.
6. Do You Remember Rock’n’Roll Radio? (1980)
In 1980, Joey got his wish of working with Spector. End of the Century was largely forgettable, but Spector did absolute justice to this hymn for the golden days of pop radio – Murray the K, Alan Freed and all – which sounds like a fairground at night.
5. Danny Says (1980)
Maybe the band’s most heartfelt song, addressed to their manager Danny Fields as a series of pleas from the road. It’s given pathos by the fact that Ramones, unlike most artists moaning about the road, weren’t living the life of five-star hotels.
4. Beat on the Brat (1976)
Random, cartoon violence was a theme of early Ramones songs – they sounded like late-night TV being reprocessed. With what should you beat on the brat? A baseball bat, naturally. And why? Well, what can you do with a brat like that always on your back? Faulty logic, thrilling song.
3. Swallow My Pride (1977)
The most grownup Ramones song yet when it emerged on their second album. A mid-pace chug that was a very conscious piece of classicism, with actual harmonies in the mix, and a change of dynamics from verse to chorus – and yet another great single.
2. Blitzkrieg Bop (1976)
The first real punk-rock single, as 1976 dawned, was the Bay City Rollers’ Saturday Night rewritten as a call to arms. Beginning with the “Hey ho! Let’s go!” chant was genius, and sealed the song’s future for use in sports arenas and advertising white goods.
1. Rockaway Beach (1977)
Perhaps the greatest single from punk’s first wave, and one that showed how deeply Ramones were rooted in old rock’n’roll. Imagine it played in the style of Little Richard’s Keep a-Knockin’, with horns and piano: it sounds just as thrilling. It had a perfect lyric from Dee Dee as well, capturing the soporific ennui of teenage summers: “Chewing out a rhythm on my bubble gum / The sun is out and I want some / It’s not hard, not far to reach / We can hitch a ride to Rockaway Beach.” Nearly half a century later, it still sounds like cold fizzy drinks, fried onions and the smell of salt water.
