Craig Leon was producing the Ramones’ 1976 self-titled debut album when someone recommended a young singer living in Connecticut to handle backing vocals.
The band’s label, Sire Records, refused to pay for his train ticket to New York City.
That’s how close Michael Bolton came to singing on one of the most influential punk records ever made.
“It was real homemade stuff, because we couldn’t pay anybody,” Leon told Spin Magazine in May.
Leon first saw the Ramones in 1975 at New York’s famed CBGB and found their rawness refreshing.
“I wasn’t anti-folk or against bands like the Eagles,” Leon said. “I was against the way that they made records.”
Sire initially offered the Ramones a singles deal. Leon advised them to turn it down, proposing to make an album for the budget two singles. Sire agreed, leaving Leon and the Ramones with approximately one week and $6,400 to work with.
Recording sessions took place at Plaza Sound, located above Radio City Music Hall. Engineer Rob Freeman recalled putting Johnny Ramone’s amp and speakers in one of the Rockettes’ rehearsal rooms because it had “very ‘lively’ acoustic property.”
Working with a tight budget and timeline forced Leon to be resourceful. He, Freeman and Mickey Leigh, brother of Joey Ramone (real name Jeff Hyman), provided backing vocals while the band’s then-manager Danny Fields and artistic director Arturo Vega supplied handclaps.
The budget was small. But the equipment was top-notch.
“Every kind of mike we used on the Ramones, I later used at Abbey Road on the London Symphony Orchestra,” Leon told Ben Sisario of the New York Times in a 2016 article posted on Steve Leeds’ website.
Released April 23, 1976, Ramones wasn’t a commercial success. It peaked at No. 111 on the Billboard Top 200 and neither of its two singles charted.
But its influence grew over time. Rolling Stone ranked it 33rd in its first edition of the 500 greatest albums of all time before dropping it to 47th in 2020.
“Blitzkrieg Bop,” the Ramones’ first single, has become popular at sporting events, with crowds joining in its opening chant: “Hey! Ho! Let’s go!” Rolling Stone listed it as the 92nd best song ever made on its 2004 edition of the 500 Greatest Songs of All Time.
“In less than three minutes, this song threw down the blueprint for punk rock,” the magazine wrote.
Ramones eventually achieved platinum status. And 50 years later, artists continue to reach out to Freeman for help in reproducing its sound.
“It’s incredible how this little project, which took all of six days (seven, total) to complete, has had the tremendous impact that it has,” Freeman told Spin. “I had no idea the Ramones album would go on to become as iconic as it is.”
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