RAMONES To Honor Landmark Debut Album With Year-Long Series Of 50th-Anniversary Celebrations

Fifty years ago today, on April 23, 1976, the RAMONES ignited the punk rock revolution with the release of their debut, self-titled album: "Ramones". Fast, loud and relentless, Joey Ramone (vocals),Johnny Ramone (guitar),Dee Dee Ramone (bass) and Tommy Ramone (drums) cut through the era's excess with a brash attitude and a set of songs — "Blitzkrieg Bop", "Judy Is A Punk" and a dozen other short, combustible, stripped-down but groundbreaking blasts — that were like nothing else at the time. "Punk rock started in 1976 on New York's Bowery, when four cretins from Queens came up with a mutant strain of blitzkrieg bubblegum," said Rolling Stone, when naming "Ramones" the No. 1 "Greatest Punk Album Of All Time" (later naming it the No. 1 "Best Debut Album Of All Time"). "But even if punk rock began as a kind of negation — a call to stark, brutal simplicity — its musical variety and transforming emotional power was immediate and remains staggering."

In the five decades that have passed, "the album's influence has been incalculable" (The New York Times),and the RAMONES' music reaches more ears today than ever before. To mark the occasion, the RAMONES and Rhino are beginning a series of year-long festivities to not only celebrate the record's generational legacy, but to honor the birth of a genre and the Rock And Roll Hall Of Famers' enduring impact on this global grassroots movement. From punk to pop to the perennially cool, music and style have never been the same since.

Organized and curated by The Punk Foundation in collaboration with Linda Ramone and Ramones Productions Inc., the only authorized exhibition dedicated to the RAMONES will make its world premiere at The Punk Rock Museum in Las Vegas on July 4, 2026. Framed around the 50th anniversary of the band's 1976 debut album, it brings together the band's music, materials, and cultural legacy within a larger live public program. Anchored by a summer of public and members-only performances, artist conversations, interactive experiences, artist-led tours, community workshops, and more, the exhibition connects audiences to the RAMONES' legacy, cultural impact, and continuing aftershock across music, art, design, and public memory.

Between now and the end of 2026, the RAMONES and Rhino will also announce physical releases and reissues, tribute performances and more, with newly remastered, upscaled videos of "I Wanna Be Sedated", "Psycho Therapy", "Rock N Roll High School", "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker", "Merry Christmas (I Don't Want To Fight Tonight)", "We Want The Airwaves", "Time Has Come Today", "I Wanna Live", "Something To Believe In", "Howling At The Moon" and "Do You Remember Rock And Roll Radio?" now available on the RAMONES official YouTube.