Rocket to Russia is the third studio album by the American punk rock band Ramones, and was released on November 4, 1977, through Sire Records.

The album received positive reviews, with many critics appreciating the matured production and sound quality as compared to Rocket to Russia's predecessors.

Music critic Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it his favorite Ramones album as it contained several hooks and featured more variety of tempos.

New York-based clubs CBGB and Max's Kansas City began to see bigger audiences crowd in to hear these bands.

[9][10] Punk fans commonly believed that this musical style would soon top the market, to which author Tom Carson explains: "To be in New York that summer was to have some sense of what it might have been like to live in San Francisco in 1966 or '67, or in London when the Beatles and the [Rolling] Stones first hit.

[12] On the first day of sessions, guitarist Johnny Ramone brought a copy of the Sex Pistols' single "God Save the Queen" with him, remarking that their type of music "robbed" the band.

[12] Infamous record producer Phil Spector offered to fabricate Rocket to Russia, but the band declined, feeling as though the album would not be the same without Tommy and Bongiovi.

[16] Holmstrom and Johnny collaborated on the back cover's concept, eventually conceiving a military theme with an anti-communist cartoon drawing.

[17][18] Compared to the band's previous albums, the songs from Rocket to Russia were more surf music and bubblegum pop influenced.

But similar to their previous releases, the lyrics integrated humor,[19][20] specifically black comedy with themes circling mental disorders and psychiatry.

The song is among the first pieces written by the band and was originally recorded as a demo that was released on the 2001 expanded edition of the Ramones debut album.

The song's lyrics depict a dysfunctional family where the father is a lying homosexual, the mother is addicted to prescription drugs, the infant has chills.

[19] The song fades out with various different lines taken from fake dialogue, which illustrate a side of Joey's personality according to his brother Mickey Leigh.

"[36] John Rockwell of The New York Times deemed Rocket to Russia the band's best album "because the humor and the role-playing have become more overt than ever.

He stated that although it lacks the revolutionary impact that their debut had, Rocket to Russia is the band's "most listenable and enjoyable album" because of its surplus of hooks and varying tempo.

[43] The lack of record sales was largely due to fellow punk band Sex Pistols turning people off the genre "with their antisocial behavior," as put by author Brian J. Bowe.

Rock music historian Legs McNeil relates: "Safety pins, razor blades, chopped haircuts, snarling, vomiting—everything that had nothing to do with the Ramones was suddenly in vogue, and it killed any chance Rocket to Russia had of getting any airplay.

"[44][45] Drummer Tommy, who had also worked to co-produce the album, was troubled by the lack of sales and began debating on continuing with the Ramones.

He also considered touring to be "depressing", and that the audience at unfamiliar gigs were "a bunch of very eccentric, high-strung, crazy people, from one shit-hole club to another.