Blitzkrieg Bop (2:14)

“Blitzkrieg Bop” is a song by punk rock band The Ramones. The band’s inaugural single, it was released in April 1976 in the United States. It was recorded for and appeared as the lead track on the band’s first album, Ramones, also released that month.

The song, whose composition was credited to the band as a whole, was written by bassist Dee Dee Ramone (lyrics) and drummer Tommy Ramone (music and lyrics). Based on a simple three-chord pattern, “Blitzkrieg Bop” opens with the chant “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!”. The song is popular at sporting events, especially baseball games, where “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” is sometimes shouted as a rallying cry.

“Blitzkrieg Bop” is number 92 on the Rolling Stone list of The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time. In March 2005, Q magazine placed it at number 31 in its list of the 100 Greatest Guitar Tracks, and in 2008 Rolling Stone Placed it number 18 on top 100 of Best Guitar Songs of All Time. In 2009 it was named the 25th greatest hard rock song of all time by VH1.



Origin and meaning

“Blitzkrieg Bop” was named after the German World War II tactic blitzkrieg, which literally means “lightning war”. The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title (the song was originally called “Animal Hop”). Dee Dee also changed one line: The original third verse had the line “shouting in the back now”, but Dee Dee changed it to “shoot ‘em in the back now”. The precise meaning and subject matter of the song are, unlike many of The Ramones’ other early compositions, somewhat vague and obscure.