Single Stories: Ramones, MERRY CHRISTMAS (I DON'T WANT TO FIGHT TONIGHT)

For Ramones, "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" can easily be construed as art imitating life. By the time the group was making its 10th studio album, Halfway to Sanity, internal tensions had escalated to a new high. Working with former Plasmatics bass player, Jean Beauvoir, as producer, Ramones produced the band's now-legendary punk Christmas anthem, "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)."

Written by singer Joey Ramone, making "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)"--along with the rest of the Halfway to Sanity album--was hard on everyone involved. As Beauvoir recalled during an interview with Afropunk:

"So... being the producer and good friend and co-writer, you know, I got to spend a lot of time with all of them all the time. And so I had to listen to each one of them bitch, because they all go 'oh I don't want piano on records' and 'I don’t want this.' 'I don’t want that kind of subject.' And then Joey would call you saying 'I love strings! I love piano! Can't we do this, Jean?' And Dee Dee would call and say something else. And the record company would be like, 'It's your gig, dude. You figure that out. Just get the record out.'"

"Merry Christmas (I Don't Want to Fight Tonight)" didn't appear on Halfway to Sanity, but first arrived as the b-side of the album's  second single, "I Wanna Live" in November 1987. The tune made its LP debut as the last track on Ramones' 1989 full-length, Brain Drain. The song inspired a comedic music video, which also reflected changes within the group. With Brain Drain being the last Ramones LP to feature original bassist Dee Dee, the holiday clip featured his replacement, C.J. Ramone.