After Hit Parader editor Lisa Robinson saw the band at a gig in New York City, she wrote several articles about the group and asked Danny Fields to be their manager.

The album cover, photographed by Punk magazine's Roberta Bayley, features the four members leaning against a brick wall in New York City.

Ramones is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential punk albums of all time, and it had a significant impact on other genres of rock music, such as grunge and heavy metal.

[8] In early 1975, Lisa Robinson, an editor of Hit Parader and Rock Scene, saw the fledgling Ramones performing at CBGB and subsequently wrote about the band in several magazine issues.

Featuring the songs "Judy Is a Punk" and "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend," the band used the demo to showcase their style to prospective labels.

[10][11] Producer Craig Leon, who had seen the Ramones perform in the summer of 1975, brought the demo to the attention of Sire Records' president Seymour Stein.

[9][12][13] After being persuaded by Craig Leon and his ex-wife Linda Stein, Ramones auditioned at Sire and were offered a contract, although the label had previously signed only European progressive rock bands.

"[9][15] The label offered to release "You're Gonna Kill That Girl" as a single, but the band declined, insisting on recording an entire album.

[17] Author Nicholas Rombes said that the production's quality sounded like "the ultimate do-it-yourself, amateur, reckless ethic that is associated with punk," but concluded that they approached the recording process with a "high degree of preparedness and professionalism.

[36] "Judy Is a Punk" is the original album's shortest track at 1:32; it is partially derived from the Burl Ives 1953 folk song, “There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Fly.

"[51] "Let's Dance" is a cover version of the hit song by Chris Montez,[28] featuring Leon playing Radio City's large Wurlitzer pipe organ.

[39][52] "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You" segues into the closing track "Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World," which refers to a Hitler Youth member.

[58] The release, along with the Ramones 2001 Expanded Edition, featured "Blitzkrieg Bop" remixed as a single version,[59][60] although it maintains a time of two minutes and twelve seconds.

It included live versions of "California Sun" and "I Don't Wanna Walk Around with You" as B-sides, recorded at the Roxy Theater in West Hollywood in August 1976.

When they opened at Brockton, Massachusetts, the audience appeared extremely uninterested in the Ramones so Johnny swore off playing as an introduction for other bands.

[66] Following this, Fields booked several headlining shows around the Tri-state area, and they began playing frequently at gigs like CBGB and Max's Kansas City.

[citation needed] In May, John Rockwell of the New York Times published a rave review, saying: "What the Ramones do is deliver a nonstop set of short, brisk, monochromatically intense songs.

"[82] Nick Kent favourably commented in the NME: "This record poses a direct threat to any vaguely sensitive woofer and/or tweeter lodged in your hi-fi ...".

[85] In August, Creem dubbed The Ramones as "The most radical album of the past six years", saying: "[it] is so strikingly different, so brazenly out of touch with prevailing modes as to constitute a bold swipe at the status quo."

Reviewer Gene Sculatti saw it as "a rock 'n' roll reactionary's manifesto" ... "a sharp wedge between the stale ends of a contemporary music scene bloated with graying superstars and overripe for takeover.

Theunis Bates, a writer for Time, summed the album up with: "Ramones stripped rock back to its basic elements ... lyrics are very simple, boiled-down declarations of teen lust and need.

"[88] In 1977 Charles M. Young of Rolling Stone regarded Ramones as "one of the funniest rock records ever made and, if punk continues to gain momentum, a historic turning point.

"[87] In 2001, April Long of NME rewarded the album with a perfect score, remarking that the Ramones were "arguably the most influential band ever," despite their lack of mainstream acceptance.

[92] The album was included in Spin magazine's List of Top Ten College Cult Classics (1995), where it was noted that "everything good that's happened to music in the last fourteen years can be directly traced to the Ramones.

[94] That same year, it was named the fourth best punk album by Mojo, who called it the "coolest, dumbest, simplest, greatest rock'n'roll record ever to be cut by four sweet, dysfunctional screw-ups.

And though the subject matter was sometimes dark, emanating from a sullen adolescent basement of the mind, the group also brought cartoonish fun and high-energy excitement back to rock and roll.

Billie Joe Armstrong, singer for Green Day, explained his reasoning for listening to the band: "they had songs that just stuck in your head, just like a hammer they banged right into your brain.

"[96] In 1999, Classic Albums by Collins GEM recognized Ramones as the start of English punk rock and called it the fastest and hardest music that could possibly be concocted, stating: "The songs within were a short, sharp exercise in vicious speed-thrash, driven by ferocious guitars and yet halting in an instant.

[114] In 1991, German punk band Die Toten Hosen played "Blitzkrieg Bop" on their cover album Learning English, Lesson One.

[121] We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones (2003) featured several of the album's songs covered by bands like Red Hot Chili Peppers ("Havana Affair"), Rob Zombie ("Blitzkrieg Bop"), Metallica ("53rd & 3rd"), U2 ("Beat on the Brat"), Pete Yorn ("I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend"), and John Frusciante ("Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World").