Ramones – Sheena Is a Punk Rocker

I so love the Ramones. They cut through the BS and got down to business. No solos, no lengthy anything…just songs that rock and leave you wanting more. This song peaked at #81 on the Billboard 100 and #22 in the UK in 1977. This was supposedly the first punk song in the Billboard 100. This was the sound of punk going pop, and not in the sellout sense. It would become one of their most popular songs. 

If you were standing outside CBGB in the summer of 1977, the street noise wasn’t just the usual loud feedback anymore; it had a melody with the Ramones. They had a lot of influences, but one of them was Bubblegum rock, and it shows. Most of their songs are very catchy. 

This song was Joey Ramone’s attempt to write a 1960s-style teenage rebellion song for the late 1970s crowd, and he nailed it. The name was borrowed from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, a pulp heroine with a loincloth and a machete. But in the Ramones’ world, she trades her safari clothes for a leather jacket and heads to the rock clubs.

Tommy Ramone helped produce this track. He is credited on the album under his real name, Tommy Erdelyi. They were more popular years after they broke up than they were when they were together. It’s a shame they didn’t get as popular when they were a working band. 

Joey Ramone: “‘Sheena Is A Punk Rocker’ first came out as a single. I played it for (Sire Records President) Seymour Stein. He flipped out and said ‘We gotta record that song now.’ It was like back in the ’50s; you’d rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out. To me ‘Sheena’ was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: ‘But she just couldn’t stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.’ It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena.”

Sheena Is A Punk Rocker

Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go
They’re ready to go now they got their surfboards
And they’re going to the discotheque Au Go Go
But she just couldn’t stay she had to break away
Well New York City really has is all oh yeah, oh yeah

Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Well she’s a punk punk, a punk rocker
Punk punk a punk rocker 
Punk punk a punk rocker 
Punk punk a punk rocker

Well the kids are all hopped up and ready to go
They’re ready to go now they got their surfboards
And they’re going to the discotheque Au Go Go
But she just couldn’t stay she had to break away
Well New York City really has is all oh yeah, oh yeah

Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Well she’s a punk punk, a punk rocker
Punk punk a punk rocker 
Punk punk a punk rocker 
Punk punk a punk rocker

Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker 
Sheena is a punk rocker now

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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, 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. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

38 thoughts on “Ramones – Sheena Is a Punk Rocker”

  3. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not the biggest fan of the Ramones, but the studio version is pretty subdued and melodic compared to the live one. Not bad.

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  4. I’ll risk getting banned from the blog for mentioning (most likely yet again …. yawn! 😉) that I saw them play to a small crowd in 1977. Talking Heads were the co-headliners, and Debbie Harry was reportedly also the small crowd at Strathclyde University.

    Sorry! 😂

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  5. When I hear “Ramones” I think of one of my favorite comic strip philosophers. I’ll provide a link to it, but here’s a description for those who don’t like links: A kid holds up an empty banana peel and says “I finished this so fast I don’t even know if I enjoyed it. {next panel] “That’s OK. There’ll be another one in my lunch tomorrow. And again, and again [Next panel] And they’ll all taste just like the last one.” Frazz replies: “Bananas: The Ramones songs of lunch.” https://squarewheelscycling.com/topic/188143-frazz-by-jef-mallett-for-thu-05-dec-2024/#comment-1692138

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    1. I Love that strip. You could say the same thing about AC/DC as well. Three chords and they are off…no ballads no complex songs…pure energy…and yea…one is like another.

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  9. I’ll be like Cee Tee and tell my story again, I might have said it on your blog or Daves; My wife-to-be was at University and one of her friends (Tony) worked at the book shop in the record department- basically a nook of a room jammed up at the end of the mezzanine floor. Whenever this certain girl student, whose parents had thoughtfully and lovingly decided to name Sheena, popped in to buy a course book or a ring binder or a rubber (No Max ‘rubber’ mean ‘erasers’ over here) from up in his eyrie the eagle-eyed Tony would blast out this song and make her flush blush and squirm. Poor lass; I don’t think she became a Ramones fan!

    I’ll still listen to them when in the mood. There ain’t no nuance, but sometimes it’s good to sit back, crank it up until your ears bleed. And the album rips through from beginning to end before you have time to draw breath or get bored.

    Funnily enough I’ve never ever heard them on our Oldies laid-back easy-listening Kenny Rodgers/Carpenters/Commodores heavy Coast FM.

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    1. Glad you explained because thoughts were already going through my mind.
      I have to be in a mood as well so I get what you are saying.
      How dare the oldies easy listening not play them! I would like to hear the Carpenters sing Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue with as much conviction!

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      2. I really love when someone out of that realm takes something on…like Leslie Gore – Dirty Deeds….I would have LOVED to hear Karen sing the Ramones

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      4. Maybe we can get…uh…what would be equal today? Adele covering Black Sabbath? Rush? Now her covering Rush…I would buy tickets for. Yea I know I’m messed up.

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  10. oh yes!..I think I knew the ramones over my addiction to Creem Magazine way back when, I think the first time I actually heard them was on a soundtrack for a movie called over the edge, I can’t remember the movie at all, but an awesome soundtrack, Cheap Trick with Speak Now or forever hold your peace, Van Halen, I think Blonde was on that as well as the Ramones..Teenage Lobotomy….Sheena is a great tune as well….I always loved when they explained that if you don’t like this song, there’ll be another in 2 minutes…oh, and their cover of the original Spider Man Theme….

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    1. Oh I love their cover of the Spider Man Theme! I forgot about that. I love the no nonsense…straight to the point and do the song.
      The sound track sounds great!

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  11. Pingback: Ramones – Sheena Is a Punk Rocker – MobsterTiger

  12. Playing catch-up with these blogs since internet went down for half the day yesterday! Yep, kind of a perfect example of the Ramones sound and a bit of ‘fun’ punk that probably spoke to people like the guys in Green Day and influenced their sound 15 years later

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    1. Probably doing “maintenance”…. I hope they keep it going today.
      The Ramones…as deKE said…power punk rock.

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