Ramones – Cretin Hop

In 1977 you had disco nearing it’s peak and slick pop going on everywhere…and you also had the Ramones. They bucked the trend of radio at the time. When they were recording the album they first heard the Sex Pistols album.

Rocket to Russia was the album this song was on. They had a bigger budget on this album. Johnny Ramone had just heard the Sex Pistols album and wasn’t happy. He said: “These guys ripped us off and I want to sound better than this.” They recorded most of the album in one take so the rest of the money went toward production.

The album peaked at #49 in the Billboard 100, #36 in Canada, and #60 in the UK in 1977.

Joey Ramone: “‘Cretin Hop’ came from when we were in St. Paul, Minnesota. We went some place to eat and there were just all these cretins all over the place. And there was a Cretin Avenue, where we drove into the city.” 

From Songfacts

The Ramones bucked the trends of the ’70s with simplistic rock songs, often about freaks and deviants. It didn’t make them rich, but it appealed to core group of fans that fell in with this culture. This being the disco era, songs like “Cretin Hop” were completely at odds with what was getting airplay. The Ramones were later rewarded for their skewed view and stewardship of their genre when they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.

Cretin Hop

There’s no stoppin’ the cretins from hoppin’
You gotta keep it beatin’ for all the hoppin’ cretins

Cretin, cretin
I’m gonna go for a whirl with my cretin girl
My feet won’t stop doin’ the Cretin Hop
Cretin, cretin

One-two-three-four, cretins want to hop some more
Four-five-six-seven, all good cretins go to heaven

There’s no stoppin’ the cretins from hoppin’
You gotta keep it beatin’ for all the hoppin’ cretins

Cretin, cretin
I’m gonna go for a whirl with my cretin girl
My feet won’t stop doin’ the Cretin Hop
Cretin, cretin

One-two-three-four, cretins want to hop some more
Four-five-six-seven, all good cretins go to heaven

Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player.

30 thoughts on “Ramones – Cretin Hop”

  1. There are a number of bands who just didn’t get their due- and we both love them- Big Star, The Replacements- and how many bands cashed in on what The Ramones did later on? The Ramones should have been huge! Their story is such a tragedy- but those first four albums were flawless! A blueprint for things to come.

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    1. Green Day owes a lot to them as well as many others…Nirvana also. They were also more accessible to people than some of the other punk bands.

      They do fit with those other bands. It’s so sad that they didn’t get appreciated until they were done. One of my favorite docs is “End of the Century”… it’s just really sad at the end knowing what could have been.

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      1. That is a great doc- saw it at the theater- have the DVD. great one… I can’t recall the book which had this in it- but they were talking about how The Replacements influenced Nirvana– but of course The Replacements didn’t enjoy the fame and fortune. The way they handled their career maybe they didn’t want it.

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  2. The great debate–not who came first, of course it was The Ramones, and not who was better, because with real punk rock, it’s not a matter of that either, but–did The Sex Pistols “rip off” The Ramones? And were they legit?…The Sex Pistols, that is.
    It’s like the beginnings of rock n roll, a current of reactionary music that bubbled under a smooth surface. Raw. Simple. Emotional. It was and it is incendiary.

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    1. As far as the two…personally…I would take the Ramones. I think the Sex Pistols had their place in history but I waver on legit. That is not to say I didn’t like their one album…I did.

      I was ten when the Sex Pistols came out and they didn’t hit me hard at all. I didn’t appreciate them until a little later. The Ramones I instantly liked…

      You described it perfectly… Punk was necessary at the time…it shook things up and that was needed.

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    1. Hans and I were just commenting on that. How like other bands such as Big Star, The Replacements and others…it’s a shame they weren’t heard more…

      Tomorrow I think…I’ll be posting on a seventies UK series I’ve been watching.

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  6. I generally don’t pay too much attention to punk, in part because I’ve come across some pretty mediocre stuff. But I have to say, as a rock fan, how can you not dig The Ramones?

    These guys knew how to furiously rock and still write melodic catchy tunes!

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    1. They were influenced by bubble gum records of the late sixties…so that is why I think more of their music is accessible…more than other punk bands.

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    1. They are better in spurts I agree. I think they bridged punk to pop more than some others did. Some of it is hard bubble gum pop…and that is not a put down.

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    1. No dude I haven’t. Thanks Deke!
      “Fuzz tone, hear ’em go
      Hear ’em on the radio
      Misfits, twilight zone
      R-A-M-O-N-E-S, R-A-M-O-N-E-S, Ramones!”

      How can someone NOT like that!
      Man…Lemmy is one of my favorite rock people. I could just listen to the man talk all day.

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      2. Lisa as far as the Ramones…the documentary that you will want to watch…it’s great…Hans and I were just talking about it… “End of the Century” is terrific. It’s one of my favorite docs period.

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      3. Thanks for the recommend. I watched, “It Might Get Loud” again last night. So good! I’d like to try to get familiar with The Raconteurs. I have all of the White Stripes albums but haven’t listened to them in a long time. Sorry to add more musicians to this Ramones post!

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  12. After the usual stuff of a kid in the mid seventies – stuff that I nicked from my folks -Beatles and Rod, Simon & Garfunkel (all good, of course), The Ramones’ Rocket To Russia was the first album I bought (saving my paper round money over, I imagine, some weeks!). I’d heard them on Stewart Henry’s Radio Luxembourg show, Street Heat, on a transistor under my blanket and I knew at once that this was for me.

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    1. The Ramones were different than many others. They were almost power pop-punk… you could hum what their songs after you heard them…other punk bands not as much.

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