Blitzkrieg Bop

In February 1976, Ramones put out their first single, "The Blitzkrieg Bop!!", and two months later their self-titled debut album opened with it. The band was credited as a whole, but drummer Tommy Ramone wrote the music and lyrics, and bassist Dee Dee Ramone contributed lyrics. Dee Dee came up with the title. The song had been called "Animal Hop".

The chant at the start came from the 1973 Bay City Rollers hit "Saturday Night". That song opens by spelling out "S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y night". Tommy wanted a catchy chant of their own. The words "Hey ho, let's go" echoed "High, low, tipsy toe" from "Walking the Dog" by Rufus Thomas, as covered by the Rolling Stones. The band liked to mock Mick Jagger's pronunciation of the line. To them it sounded like "hey ho". Tommy said he came up with the chant walking home from the grocery store with a bag of groceries.

Tommy described the song as the story of a young audience at a rock concert. Dee Dee changed one line in the third verse from "shouting in the back now" to "shoot 'em in the back now". The word blitzkrieg refers to the German World War II tactic of fast attack, meaning lightning war. The chant later became a rallying cry at sporting events around the world.