"Blitzkrieg Bop" is a song by the American punk rock bandRamones. It was released as the band's debut single in February 1976 in the United States. It appeared as the opening track on the band's debut album, Ramones, that was released April 23, 1976. The song, whose composition was credited to the band as a whole, was written by drummer Tommy Ramone and bassist Dee Dee Ramone. 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 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 of the top 100 Greatest 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 GermanWorld War II tactic blitzkrieg, which means "lightning war". The song was mainly written by drummer Tommy Ramone, while bassist Dee Dee Ramone came up with the title. 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 is, unlike many of The Ramones' other early compositions, somewhat vague and obscure. Tommy Ramone told about the chant in Ramones: Soundtrack Of Our Lives, written by Jari-Pekka Laitio-Ramone: "I came up with the chant walking home from the grocery store carrying a bag of groceries. It was based on the line: 'High Hose nipped her toes' from the song, "Walking The Dog" by Rufus Thomas."
Composition
"Blitzkrieg Bop" is a 4/4 time song written in the key of A. It contains four chords; A major, B major, D major, and E major. The song relies heavily on the I, IV, and V chords, most notably used in the intro and verses in the form of the I–IV–V chord progression. The II chord appears only briefly towards the end of the refrain. Johnny Ramone played the entire song with barre chord shapes, as these were signature to his playing style. Dee Dee Ramone simply played the root note of whatever chord the guitarist was playing. Both the rhythm guitar and bass parts, played using downstrokes exclusively, utilize almost constant eighth notes to generate a "wall of sound". Joey Ramone's vocal melody relies on five of the seven notes found in the A major scale; A, B, C, D, and E. Tommy Ramone maintains a steady backbeat on the kick and snare throughout the entire song. Constant eighth notes are played on the hi hat cymbals during the verses, and on the floor tom whilst Joey shouts "Hey, Ho, Let's Go!", whereas quarter notes are used on the ride cymbal during the refrain. Occasional crashes are used to accentuate certain beats. The song was originally played at a very fast tempo. When the band performed the song live, they started to play it at even faster tempos, gradually increasing the speed throughout their career. At the band's final show, they played the song at an extremely fast tempo well above 200 bpm.
The song appears in the films National Lampoon's Vacation, ', Sonic the Hedgehog, Date Night, Accepted and ', and a rendition of the song is chanted in the movie Pan by Blackbeard's crew of pirates. It was also featured prominently in the 1979 film Rock 'n' Roll High School along with several other songs by The Ramones.
*The song was used in the theatrical trailer for the 2012 stop-motion animated film The Pirates! Band of Misfits, and a cover version was featured in the second trailer for the 2020 film Sonic the Hedgehog.
The song has appeared in the video games Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3, ', Rock Band, Rocksmith 2014, NHL Slapshot, NHL 2K9, NHL 11 and NBA 2K16.
The song was used as a battle hymn in the first episode of the sci-fi/action TV series, '.
The song is regularly played before home games at St. James' Park, home of Newcastle United F.C..
"Blitzkrieg Bop" was featured in a 2004 episode of The King of Queens, "Icky Shuffle".
Frequent references to the song are made in the novel Pet Sematary and the film Final Destination 3.
The Clash used the line "They're going through a tight wind" at the start of their cover version of "Police and Thieves" on The Clash .
Justin Long covered/karaoked the song in Accepted.
The song is played before the start of each powerplay by the Vancouver Canucks.
The song was featured in a Finnish KEKKILÄ commercial and had actor/musician Nicole Kennedy from the band 'Gloo Girls' singing the beginning guitar riff and shouting the phrase, 'Hey, Ho, Let's Grow'.