In 1976, the Ramones released their debut, self-titled album, a record that would go on to be one of the first albums classified as “punk rock.” Over the course of its career, the band would become a default reference point for young punks, so much so that, when other groups adhered too closely to its template, they would get tagged as “Ramones-core.” With its status as a pioneer well established, it comes as something of a surprise that, almost exactly 38 years after the release of Ramones, it’s only now sold the requisite 500,000 copies for the Recording Industry Association of America to certify it gold.
Ramones was released on April 23, 1976, and although it took until the week of April 30, 2014 to happen, the Ramones have finally seen its sales figures match its influence. This isn’t the first Ramones record to have gone gold; the 1988 greatest-hits compilation, Ramones Mania, received that distinction six years after its release. Still, this recent achievement suggests that maybe all those people you see wearing Ramones shirts finally decided to check out the record.