End of the Century is the fifth studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones, released on February 4, 1980, through Sire Records.

These painstaking methods caused conflict between the band and Spector since the Ramones were accustomed to a quicker recording process.

In February 1977 after attending a Ramones concert in Los Angeles, music producer Phil Spector offered to assist in making Rocket to Russia.

[2][3] While the band refused his initial offer, their management later asked Spector to help with the album because of their lack of popularity and sales.

[4] Spector had become famous through his work with the Ronettes, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, the Beatles and John Lennon, among others.

These standards are created through instruments performing identical parts in unison, using high-quality overdubbing and echo chambers to aid in the production value.

[4][5] The producer was convinced that the Ramones had talent with lyrics and musical structure, so he intended to promote the band through more advanced methods of sound output.

[2] At the Ramones' request,[6] Ed Stasium joined the band in Los Angeles, serving as 'musical director', playing additional guitar parts and singing backing vocals, but not engineering.

The band recorded their earlier compositions in the shortest time possible for the lowest feasible budget, with a relatively low production value.

With End of the Century, which took nearly six months to mix,[7] the band experienced Spector's infamous perfectionism, and a budget of $200,000 ($869,000 in 2024) to fully record and produce the album.

"[12] During the recording of "Rock 'n' Roll High School", Johnny was forced by Spector to repeat his part hundreds of times for several hours.

Then he sat down at his black concert piano and made us listen to him play and sing "Baby, I Love You" until well after 4:30 in the morning.Johnny gave a similar account in a 1986 interview: He always carried three guns around with him...We were prisoners in his house for about six hours, and we thought we were gonna get shot.

"[1] End of the Century was described by the band as an album written solely to gain popularity, resulting in more of a punk rock with pop sensibilities.

The lyrics name several famous musicians of this era, including Jerry Lee Lewis, John Lennon, and T. Rex, and also cite The Ed Sullivan Show.

Many instruments that were previously rarely—if ever—used in punk rock were featured in the song's score, including the saxophone and electronic organ.

[8] The lyrics deal with the daily life of a heroin addict, and the term "Chinese Rock" is a euphemism for the drug.

Johnny constantly claims in his book Commando that he hated the song and the band didn't even play on it, only Joey and some studio musicians.

[20] The song is a cover version of the original by the Ronettes, and contained a string section arrangement that Leigh deemed "gooey" and that it "sounded right out of Redbone's 'Come and Get Your Love.'"

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, senior editor for AllMusic, noted that the Ramones desired mainstream success much more and were recording music in such a fashion as to expand their fan base.

[29] Another AllMusic editor, T. Donald Guarisco, noted that the "entire album is pretty controversial in the world of Ramones fandom".

He also felt that Spector's production failed to make much of a difference in the band's overall sound, saying "his guitar overdubs are worse than his orchestrations, and they're not uncute.

"[28] Kurt Loder, reviewing the album for Rolling Stone, called it "Phil Spector's finest and most mature effort in years", and said that his production created a setting "rich and vibrant and surging with power".

[38] Author Richard Williams exclaimed that to "old fans the Ramones' version of 'Baby, I Love You' went too far, desecrating the memory of the original despite Joey's evident devotion to the task of emulating Ronnie's lead vocal.