Formed in Forest Hills, Queens, New York, in 1974, all members of the band used stage names with their surnames as "Ramone", though none of them are actually related. They performed 2,263 concerts, touring virtually non-stop for 22 years.
In 1996, after a tour with the Lollapalooza music festival, the band played their final show and then disbanded. The band's three founding members—Joey Ramone, Johnny Ramone and Dee Dee Ramone—died within eight years of the break-up.
The Ramones failed to achieve much commercial success during their years of recording and performing. Their only album to reach certified gold status in the U.S. was their compilation album Ramones Mania.
Appreciation of the band has grown since the 1980s, and they now regularly appear on "all-time greatest" lists, such as Rolling Stone’s list of 100 Greatest Artists of All Time, Rolling Stone’s list of 25 Greatest Live Albums of All Time,VH1's 100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock and Mojo's 100 Greatest Albums.
In 2002, the Ramones were voted the second greatest rock and roll band ever in Spin Magazine, trailing only The Beatles.
On March 18, 2002, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The pre-history of the band is centered in and around the middle-class neighborhood of Forest Hills in the New York City borough of Queens.
Most of the members had been in various bands since the late 1960s. Johnny and Tommy had both been in a high school garage band circa 1966-67 known as the Tangerine Puppets, and Joey was in the short-lived early 1970s glam rock band Sniper.
The initial version of the Ramones included Jeffrey Hyman on drums, John Cummings on guitar, and Douglas Colvin on bass and lead vocals. Colvin was the first to use the name Ramone, calling himself Dee Dee Ramone. He was inspired by the fact that Paul McCartney used the pseudonym Paul Ramon.
He convinced the other members to take on the name, and came up with the idea of calling the band the Ramones.
Hyman and Cummings would become Joey Ramone and Johnny Ramone.
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