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The original members of the band met in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens. John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi had both been in a high-school garage band from 1966 to 1967. They became friends with Douglas Colvin, who had recently moved to the area from Germany. The Ramones began taking shape in early 1974, when Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join them in a band. The initial lineup featured Colvin on lead vocals and rhythm guitar, Cummings on lead guitar, and Hyman on drums. Colvin, who soon switched from rhythm guitar to bass, was the first to adopt the name "Ramone", calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He convinced the other members to take on the name and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones. Hyman and Cummings became Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone, respectively.
Johnny's former bandmate Erdelyi was set to become their manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he could not sing and play his bass guitar simultaneously, thus Joey became the band's new lead singer. Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!" Joey soon similarly realized that he could not sing and play drums simultaneously and left the position of the drummer. While auditioning prospective replacements, Erdelyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to perform the group's music better than anyone else, and he joined the band as Tommy Ramone.
Around this time, a new music scene was emerging in New York centered around two clubs in downtown Manhattan—Max's Kansas City and, more famously, CBGB (usually referred to as CBGB's). The Ramones made their CBGB debut on August 16 74. The band swiftly became regulars at the club, playing there seventy-four times by the end of the year. After garnering considerable attention for their performances—which averaged about seventeen minutes from beginning to end—the group was signed to a recording contract in late 1975 by Seymour Stein of Sire Records. By this time, the Ramones were recognized as leaders of the new scene that was increasingly being referred to as "punk".
The Ramones recorded their debut album, Ramones, in February 1976. While the songwriting credits were shared by the entire band, Dee Dee was the primary writer. Ramones was co-produced by Tommy and Craig Leon on an extremely low budget of about $6,400 and released in April. Ramones was not a commercial success, reaching only number 111 on the Billboard album chart. The two singles released from the album, "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend", failed to chart. At the band's first major performance outside of New York, approximately ten people showed up. It wasn't until they made a brief tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor; a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 was a resounding success.
Their next two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, were released in 1977. Both were coproduced by Tommy and Tony Bongiovi. Leave Home met with even less chart success than Ramones. Rocket to Russia was the band's highest-charting album to date, reaching number 49 on the Billboard 200. The Ramones recorded It's Alive, a live concert double album, at the Rainbow Theatre, London, which was released in April 1979.
Tommy, tired of touring, left the band in early 1978. He continued as the Ramones' record producer under his birth name of Erdelyi. His position as drummer was filled by Marc Bell, He became Marky Ramone. Later that year, the band released their fourth studio album, Road to Ruin. The album, co-produced by Tommy with Ed Stasium, included some new sounds such as acoustic guitar, several ballads, and the band's first two recorded songs longer than three minutes. It failed to reach the Billboard Top 100.
After the band's movie debut in Roger Corman's Rock 'n' Roll High School (1979), renowned producer Phil Spector became interested in the Ramones and produced their 1980 album End of the Century. Though it was to be the highest-charting album in the band's history—reaching number 44 in the United States and number 14 in Great Britain—Johnny made clear that he favored the band's more aggressive punk material. Pleasant Dreams, the band's sixth album, was released in 1981. It continued the trend established by End of the Century, diluting the rawer punk sound showcased on the band's initial three albums. Slick production was again featured, this time provided by Graham Gouldman (10cc). Another futile attempt to get airplay on American radio. Subterranean Jungle, produced by Ritchie Cordell and Glen Kolotkin, was released in 1983. The album peaked at number 83 in the United States, it would be the last album by the band to crack the Billboard Top 100.
One would expect the band to collapse and in a sense it did several drummers went and came (back) by 1989 founder member Dee Dee left the band after the recording of their tenth studio album, Brain Drain, co-produced by Beauvoir, Rey, and Bill Laswell.He was replaced by Christopher Joseph Ward (C.J. Ramone), who performed with the band until they disbanded.
After more than a decade and a half at Sire Records, the Ramones moved to a new label, Radioactive Records. Their first album for the label was 1992's Mondo Bizarro, which reunited them with producer Ed Stasium. Acid Eaters, consisting entirely of cover songs, came out the following year. In 1995, the Ramones released ¡Adios Amigos!, their fourteenth studio album, and announced that they planned to disband if it was not successful. Its sales were unremarkable, garnering it just two weeks on the lower end of the Billboard chart. The band spent late 1995 on what was promoted as a farewell tour. However, they accepted an offer to appear in the sixth Lollapalooza festival, which toured around the United States during the following summer. After the Lollapalooza tour's conclusion, the Ramones played their final show on August 6, 1996, at the Palace in Hollywood. A recording of the concert was later released on video and CD as We're Outta Here !
Joey, who had been diagnosed with lymphoma in 1995, died of the illness on April 15, 2001, in New York. In 2002, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, which specifically named Dee Dee, Johnny, Joey, Tommy, and Marky. The ceremony was one of Dee Dee's last public appearances; on June 5, 2002, two months later, he was found at his Hollywood home, dead from a heroin overdose. End of the Century: The Story of the Ramones, a Ramones documentary, came out in 2004. Johnny, who had been privately battling prostate cancer, died on September 15, 2004, in Los Angeles, shortly after the film's release. Remaining are the Ramones who played drums over the years, Tommy, Marky, Richie and Elvis.
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Recorded live at the Rainbow Theatre, London, England on December 31,1977. It's Alive captures the phenomena of the Ramones at their peak and in their element: live and sweaty. You've barely blinked before you realize that the first half-dozen songs have already raced past. This album captures the Ramones in peak form, having the time of their lives before an appreciative British audience. It pummels the listener into submission with the complete live Ramones experience to the point where you can practically feel the sweat. All the classics from the first three albums are executed with an enthusiasm the Ramones rarely mustered years down the line. It's Alive is the next best thing to actually seeing the Ramones live and, as that's not likely to happen, this set will go a long way towards satisfying your Ramones fix.
Ramones - It's Alive (79 126mb)
01 Rockaway Beach 2:23
02 Teenage Lobotomy 1:54
03 Blitzkrieg Bop 2:05
04 I Wanna Be Well 2:23
05 Glad To See You Go 1:51
06 Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment 1:37
07 You're Gonna Kill That Girl 2:28
08 I Don't Care 1:41
09 Sheena Is A Punk Rocker 2:16
10 Havanna Affair 1:34
11 Commando 1:39
12 Here Today, Gone Tomorrow 2:54
13 Surfin' Bird 2:20
14 Cretin Hop 1:46
15 Listen To My Heart 1:35
16 California Sun 1:45
17 I Don't Wanna Walk Around With You 1:24
18 Pinhead 2:45
19 Do You Wanna Dance 1:39
20 Chainsaw 1:28
21 Today Your Love, Tomorrow The World 1:55
22 Now I Wanna Be A Good Boy 2:03
23 Judy Is A Punk 1:13
24 Suzy Is A Headbanger 1:53
25 Let's Dance 2:03
26 Oh Oh I Love Her So 1:39
27 Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue 1:18
28 We're A Happy Family 2:06
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Appearing one year after Rhino's Ramones box set Weird Tales of the Ramones, and appearing four years after Rhino's first single-disc Ramones collection Loud, Fast Ramones: Their Toughest Hits -- which itself appeared after Rhino's excellent double-disc Hey! Ho! Let's Go!: The Anthology -- Rhino's 2006 collection Greatest Hits serves up 20 of the group's basics. Something very ironic has happened with these guys, as many compilation/greatest hits collections have appeared as the number of studio albums that they have released. Thats kind of funny, since the Ramones hardly sold anything during their 19 year career. But all the same, it's OK to recommend this album to everyone, from avid fans to curious new listeners alike.
Ramones - Greatest Hits (80 125mb)
01 Blitzkrieg Bop 2:12
02 Beat On The Brat 2:32
03 Judy Is A Punk 1:32
04 I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend 2:26
05 Sheena Is A Punk Rocker 2:47
06 Pinhead 2:44
07 Commando 1:52
08 Rockaway Beach 2:06
09 We're A Happy Family 2:39
10 Cretin Hop 1:55
11 Teenage Lobotomy 2:01
12 I Wanna Be Sedated 2:29
13 I Just Want To Have Something To Do 2:41
14 Rock 'n' Roll High School 2:19
15 Baby, I Love You 3:44
16 Do You Remember Rock 'n' Roll Radio? 3:49
17 The KKK Took My Baby Away 2:30
18 Outsider 2:10
19 Pet Semetary 3:32
20 Wart Hog 1:54
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