He was inspired by Paul McCartney's use of the pseudonym Paul Ramon during his Silver Beetles days. Colvin was the first to adopt the name 'Ramone', calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. However, after only a few rehearsals it became clear that Richie Stern could not play bass, so in addition to singing, Colvin switched from guitar to bass and Cummings became the only guitarist. The lineup was to be completed with their friend Richie Stern on bass. Colvin wanted to play guitar and sing, Cummings would also play guitar and Hyman would play drums. The Ramones began taking shape in early 1974 when Cummings and Colvin invited Hyman to join them in a band. They became friends with Douglas Colvin, who had recently moved to the area from Germany, and Jeff Hyman, who was the singer for the glam rock band Sniper, founded in 1972. John Cummings and Thomas Erdelyi had both been in a high-school garage band from 1965 to 1967 known as the Tangerine Puppets. 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. įorest Hills High School, attended by the four original members of the Ramones In 2011, the group was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. On March 18, 2002, the original four members and Tommy's replacement on drums, Marky Ramone, were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in their first year of eligibility, though Joey had died by then. In 2002, the Ramones were ranked the second-greatest band of all time by Spin, trailing only The Beatles. The Ramones ranked number 26 in Rolling Stone magazine's list of the ' 100 Greatest Artists of All Time' and number 17 in VH1's '100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock'. Recognition of the band's importance built over the years. Ramone (who replaced Dee Dee in 1989 and stayed with the band until its dissolution) and drummers Marky Ramone, Richie Ramone and Elvis Ramone-are still musically active. The remaining surviving members of the Ramones-bassist C. By 2014, all four of the band's original members had died – lead singer Joey Ramone (1951–2001), bassist Dee Dee Ramone (1951–2002), guitarist Johnny Ramone (1948–2004) and drummer Tommy Ramone (1949–2014). In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, they played a farewell concert in Los Angeles and disbanded. The Ramones performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually nonstop for 22 years. Despite achieving only limited commercial success initially, the band was highly influential in the United States, Argentina, Brazil and most of South America, as well as Europe, including the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden and Belgium.Īll of the band members adopted pseudonyms ending with the surname 'Ramone', although none of them were biologically related they were inspired by Paul McCartney, who would check into hotels as 'Paul Ramon'. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974.

Ramones leather jacket