I’m amazed to see the Ramones chart history … they never really made it big in terms of sales. According to Wikipedia.
US charts no top 50 singles
UK charts 4 top 50 with Baby I Love You reaching 8
Surely that’s not right?
The Ramones
by 63 Comments
-> ..sold a lot of t shirts though (how does that money get sliced up?)
Why wouldn’t it be right?
I thought they were more successful
How did the New York Dolls do?
Talking Heads are easily the most successful band to emerge from CBGBs.
Blondie?
Was going to say the same. If it’s record sales that measure success then I think Blondie did a multiple of Talking Heads’ number.
Ah. Quite right.
Definitely sold more t-shirts than records! Who hasn’t got one?
https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/fashion/features/the-ramones-tshirt-from-cult-and-credible-to-absolutely-everywhere-10405930.html
And this article is 10 years old!
I haven’t got one and most of the people who have wouldn’t be able to name three tracks by them.
Is this really important though? I wore Converse All-Stars for decades and I couldn’t tell you any of Chuck Taylor’s career statistics.
No it’s not important, I wear Fred Perry shirts and my interest in tennis is zero.
As commonly happens, an AW-er has lost sight of the fact that we are not the general public but (alleged) music enthusiasts. The general public were either listening to/buying other stuff or not really listening to anything.
Yup, Mike nails it, popular in Afterword and popular is a Venn diagram that has only slight cross-over, a world where the Ramones, the Mahavishnu Orchestra and Katie Spencer are superstars and where nobody (much) likes Coldplay or Ed Sheeran, or have even ever heard, or heard of, many civilian favourites.
It happens more than we may think. I mentioned on Junior’s recent AC/DC concert review that for a band that can sell out stadiums, they have had very few hits. Songs that you have heard of and could possibly even sing along to reached the dizzy heights of No. 36 (Whole Lotta Rosie) and 56 (Highway to Hell) when they came out.
I also believe that it’s been mentioned once or twice on the site that The Clash were relatively light on Top 10 smashes.
Well, Back in Black was one of the biggest selling albums of all time (for some reason), The Ramones were never in the same ball park popularity wise
Incredibly overrated. Saw them, tried a couple of records. 25 songs 2-3 minutes ling all exactly the same.
Kind of the point
I think punk was just fast rock n roll with short hair, and all the sociological myth making was just that. The UK music press believed it, as did some of their readers. Mick Farren’s polemic “the Titanic sails at Dawn” (http://www.philjens.plus.com/pistols/pistols/press_cuttings_titanic01.html) captured the hip ex-“underground ” press types missing the radical early 70s, and a bit of influencing was attempted with various not-quite scenesters who caught the moment. But skinny tie pop caught the world rather more. People spitting and throwing glasses wasn’t really as deep as it affected to be. I liked the fast noise, but the year zero stuff left me cold, as it did any music fan.
Meanwhile, in post-Golden Age world / a.k.a. ‘also-rans’…
No-hits clash (obviously), the smiths, the stone roses, sousie, soiuxzie, suszie… oh the one with the banchies, banshees, banchees… yeah that one…the list goes on. Might as well bung the ramones in.
I think it all really kicked on when they invented an ‘indie-chart’ right at the beginning of the dire to convince mug-punters that ‘their’ acts were successful. Of course, they weren’t, compared to George Michael, the Sainted Dave, the Police etc.
In the dire itself, even The Beatles (disbanded in 1970) had a bigger hit than no-hits, the smiths and new order combined… and many many others. They’ve also had the biggest hit in the 2020s… but it’s nothing to laugh out loud at.
The first release of Wham Rap! (Enjoy What You Do) on Innervision Records actually made number one in the UK Indie Chart, and didn’t register in the Official Singles Chart, so Wham! were genuinely an Indie band. For about three months.
And Kylie.
Yeah, she was for much longer, due to PWL being a proper indie label.
A peculiarity is that their self-titled first album’s highest chart placing in the USA on release (1976) was #111 in the Billboard chart. It was unplaced in the UK. It’s highest chart position anywhere that year was #46 in Sweden.
Since then it has placed in various other charts over the years. The UK Rock & Metal chart for 2002 had it at #33, it’s highest position anywhere at any time.
It has since been certified Gold by the RIAA, so it must be a steady seller. It’s their only album ever to be certified Gold.
I don’t have it in my collection.
Who’s bothered?
I saw The Ramones play in the 80’s but I don’t or ever had a t-shirt although I have some albums
Is everyone bothered about every post?
The comment was made in jest
Bloody hell!
Tis true, their influence and recognition is not backed up by commercial success.
Even getting Phil Spector to twiddle the knobs in the hope of some magic fairy dust didn’t work out too well.
It may have delivered a Top 10 single, but the working relationship was strained – Johnny Ramone played the same chord opening Rock & Roll High School for about 3 hours until Spector was happy with the sustain
(he should’ve borrowed Nigel Tufnel’s Les Paul)
They’re one of those bands (like MC5, The Stooges, New York Dolls, Velvet Underground even?) where they’re sales belie their influence on what came next.
Sheena is a Punk Rocker
Rock & Roll High School
The KKK took my Baby Away
Baby I Love You
I think that’s all the Ramones songs I know.
I bought Sheena is a Punk Rocker on 7″ for 50p in a charity shop the other day.
The one Ramones song I truly love is atypical of their, ahem, oeuvre. Do you remember Rock n Roll Radio is a belter!
It is, from the much maligned Spector End of the Century album. I think it’s perfectly fine. I even saw the Rock n roll High School film when I was at university. It’s pretty terrible, but serves as a nice snapshot of the times (in the US).
I remember buying “Leave Home” on impulse, back when it was released. I actually loved the infectious nihilism and minimalism of the sound. I enjoyed the links with other bands that employed superficially simple melodic structures, so Phil Spector, the Beach Boys and all the way up through and including Jesus & Mary Chain and My Bloody Valentine. The scaffolding of the songs was similar, is similar, even if the speed and volume settings are a little different. Mind you, I never felt the need for more than the one album, apart a late acquisition of Acid Eaters, their covers album. Partly as I love covers and partly as it’s great.
I bought Rocket to Russia when it came out. There’s quite a few tracks on there even though I probably haven’t played it since the seventies which, to be fair I can say about a number of records.
Occasionally bought t shirts at concerts but never wore them so stopped doing it.
I wonder if the companies who are producing those t shirts pay any royalties.
Fantastic band, huge influence. This is my favourite (maybe along with Commando):
Love this ! Bitbürger pilsner is rather excellent too.
And dirt cheap in Germany and Switzerland
I should move then.
I like the Ramones. I believe history likes them as well. The Anthology collection is ace. And they had more hit singles than Led Zeppelin.
I also recall hearing “I Wanna Be Sedated” on a Scooby Doo film soundtrack (I may have dreamt this) amd it fitted brilliantly.
My first introduction to the band was watching Rayanne Graff’s immortal performance of I Wanna Be Sedated in My So Called Life. What a seminal 90s moment that was.
*goes off to look it up on You Tube*
TBF, the so-called “No Hits” Clash probably had more hit singles than Led Zeppelin…
17
I suspect that your estimate may be over-generous…
@dai doesn’t do estimates, and the answer will likely have been meticulously sourced. Merely an observation, and not a criticism.
Now that’s interesting – can anyone name the 17 hit singles (not just singles released and ignored by the record-buying public) by The Clash?
Bankrobber reached no 12
@fitterstoke and, for that matter @deramdaze
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Clash_discography#Singles
Sort of depends below which number qualifies as a hit, mind, but stil more than you’d think.
I haven’t taken the deramdaze shilling, mind – but how many of those would you class as “hits”?
…and, in passing, can I refer you to my initial comment of the 28th?
Purely scratching an itch of curiosity. You made a quizzical statement, and I thought I’d investigate the detail. Top 50 is probably what “counts” as a hit, if you are a publicist for a band. Certainly they have well more than no hits by that criterion, which is more to do with DD than thee.
And, relaaaax, AW isn’t a competition that needs winning at every step.
Thanks, man – I briefly forgot that when you linked the Wikipedia list! 😉
I consider top 40 to be a hit as that is what Radio 1 broadcast as a chart run down twice a week. And in the late 70s/early 80s you needed decent sales to make it
https://www.officialcharts.com/artist/16161/clash/
17
As mentioned Led Zeppelin had 0
“And, relaaaax, AW isn’t a competition that needs winning at every step” , as a great man once said…
Eh? Just answering a question I was pinged on
Gotcha – apologies. I seem a bit brittle this afternoon: I should step away from the computer!
Led Zep didn’t do singles which made it a bit hard to have hits. If you look on Spotify The Clash have 12m listens and LZ have about 20m.
Well, indeed…
Loved The Ramones. Favourite album is It’s Alive, which encapsulates them perfectly imo.
Had Sheena, Rockaway Beach and Swallow My Pride singles and the first 3 albums on vinyl.
Proud owner of 4 shirts, though 2 are a bit tight nowadays.
Saw them in Birmingham 1977 co-headlining with Talking Heads.
Definitely one of those bands whose influence outweighs their sales.
I saw that Birmingham gig too. I went to see Talking Heads. Nevertheless, The Ramones gave me a brain freeze. They were thrilling live.
the Great American Songbook isn’t that great if it doesn’t have Rockaway Beach in it
and you would have to go a long way to find a better couplet than Teenage Lobotomy’s “now I guess I’ll have to tell ’em / that I got no cerebellum”
The T shirt popularity thing is less about the music or attitude than the fact that it is a brilliant piece of graphic design artwork. Simples.
This ⬆️ – works for Joy Division as well…
I like the fact that The Ramones band name comes from Paul McCartney changing his name to Paul Ramon just before The Beatles hit the big time.