The Ramones track they knew would be a hit: “It was like the ’50s”
They may well be one of the most ubiquitous punk acts of all time, but the Ramones were far more inspired by the rock and roll and pop music of the 1950s and ‘60s than many other contemporaries of theirs would care to admit. It was evident from their earliest releases that they weren’t worried about this association ruining their punk credentials; it was a badge they wore with honour and allowed to run freely as an influence through their output.
Their impact on the Queens, New York, group was so much so that they used to adopt the same approaches to writing and recording their music as the artists of that era. Given how they managed to release their first three studio albums within the space of two years, it was seemingly always a case of being in rehearsals one moment, and quickly into the studio to lay down a short yet punchy track the next moment. It might sound stressful for some bands to work at such a rapid pace, but for the Ramones, it was nothing but natural.
While they’ve got a number of songs they’re remembered for such as ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ and ‘I Wanna Be Sedated’, it was ‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ that took these methods to the extreme, and saw the band take the process of recording the track as a matter of urgency. Of course, the end result is a blast of scrappiness, but what Ramones song isn’t? This was part of their ethos as a group, and as long as there was a rawness and a strong hook behind it, the proficiency didn’t appear to matter as much.
Regarded as the first self-identified ‘punk rock’ song to hit the charts in the US, its origins come from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a comic book and television character who was popular when frontman Joey Ramone was growing up. He identified her as one of the first figures that represented a rebellious punk attitude, and chose to insert her name into the song, and the reaction it received was staggering to them.
Ramone would later explain how the song came to be released as a single, and divulged some of the details of his inspiration. “I played it for [then Sire Records President] Seymour Stein,” the frontman recalled. “He flipped out and said, ‘we gotta record that song now.’ It was like back in the ’50s; you’d rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out.”
While Stein’s reaction would have been the greatest boost of confidence for the band, Ramone always knew there was something special and radical about the song. Speaking of its origins, he said: “To me, ‘Sheena’ was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: ‘But she just couldn’t stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.’ It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena.”
It may not be universally regarded as the definitive punk rock song these days, nor with retrospect is it the definitive Ramones song, but the importance of the track to the punk movement and its unabashed influence that was taken from surf rock and bubblegum pop makes it a truly unique song, and one that helped put the group firmly on the map.
