Joey Ramone

Joey Ramone was born Jeffrey Ross Hyman in Queens, New York, in 1951, and he became the gentle, unmistakable voice at the front of a band that played everything loud and fast. From 1972 to 1974 he played in nothing grander than Sniper, a glam punk outfit, and when he co-founded the Ramones in 1974 he started out behind the drums, moving to lead vocals shortly after. He sang on every Ramones release, and he and Johnny Ramone were the only two original members still there when the band broke up in 1996.

After the split he set out on a solo career, but he died of lymphoma in 2001, and his debut solo album, Don't Worry About Me, came out on Sire the following year. It's a warm, scrappy, big-hearted record, and the standout is a buzzsaw reading of "What a Wonderful World", with Joey's voice cracking with affection over the kind of three-chord rush he spent a lifetime perfecting. Hearing it now, it plays like a farewell, but a cheerful one: a punk singing about how good it is to be alive.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.