Album of the Day

Happy birthday to punk rock - the first Ramones album was released on this day in 1976. If U.K. bands like the Sex Pistols got more notoriety, they also got much of their inspiration (and breakneck tempos) from the Queens quartet. Behind the dimwitted leather-jacket-and-jeans exterior, Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee and Tommy Ramone were students of vintage rock 'n' roll – and had the sense of fun needed to bring the vitality of an oldie like “Let's Dance” to originals like “Blitzkrieg Bop,” “Beat On The Brat” and “I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend” without sounding like academics. The exhilaration as these 14 songs whiz by in under half-an-hour belies their occasionally dark subjects (prostitution, Nazism, glue-sniffing) and ensures listeners will be singing “Hey ho, let's go!” along with RAMONES for decades to come.