Which one is your favorite? - LXXVII -

This week I have a great punk song for you, originally released by The Ramones in 1977. This was the first punk song to hit the pop charts. While this was the first punk rock song to hit the Hot 100, it was not the first song on the chart with the word "Punk" in the title: Barry Mann made #78 in 1976 with "The Princess And The Punk," a song that about mismatched lovers that was certainly not a punk rocker.

Here is the song for this week;

"Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

The name "Sheena" came from Sheena, Queen of the Jungle, who was kind of a female Tarzan character. It was a popular comic book and TV series in the '40s and '50s.

Joey Ramone: "'Sheena Is A Punk Rocker' first came out as a single. I played it for (Sire Records President) Seymour Stein. He flipped out and said 'We gotta record that song now.' It was like back in the '50s; you'd rush into the studio because you thought you had a hit, then put it right out. To me 'Sheena' was the first surf/punk rock/teenage rebellion song. I combined Sheena, Queen of the Jungle with the primalness of punk rock. Then Sheena is brought into the modern day: 'But she just couldn't stay/she had to break away/well New York City really has it all.' It was funny because all the girls in New York seemed to change their name to Sheena after that. Everybody was a Sheena."

Written by Joey Ramone, it is one of the Ramones' most popular songs, evidence of Joey's early 1960s surf rock and bubblegum pop influences. It first appeared in May 1977 as a single in the UK where it charted at number 22 in the UK Singles Chart.[1][5] In the US, it was released as a single in July 1977, and reached number 81 in the Billboard Hot 100, and appeared on copies of the second issue of the band's 1977 album Leave Home (replacing the track "Carbona Not Glue"). The track, as well as its B-side "I Don't Care", was remixed and re-released for their third LP Rocket to Russia.

Here are the 6 versions I picked for you;

• Paul Jones - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Sixth Finger - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Hüsker Dü - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• The Queers - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• Los Del Tonos - "Sheena Is A Punk Rocker"

• The Yeah Yeah Yeahs - "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker"

Now the floor is yours, go ahead and make your comments (here, Instagram, Facebook wherever you feel like...).

nb. Please note that I intentionally do not include the original versions of the songs as it would be a little unfair to the artists covering the songs, and I am sure that sometimes you will be surprised to see that the songs you thought were the originals are just covers.