“Pet Sematary” by The Ramones

"Pet Sematary" was written for the 1989 film of Stephen King's novel and later landed on the Ramones' album Brain Drain the same year, playing over the movie's closing credits. The story behind it is pure rock and roll folklore: King, a huge fan, invited the band to his home in Bangor, Maine while they were playing New England, handed Dee Dee Ramone a copy of the book, and Dee Dee disappeared into the basement, coming back up an hour later with the lyrics.

Dee Dee wrote it with Daniel Rey, who produced it with Jean Beauvoir, and Joey Ramone croons the creepy chorus over Johnny's buzzing guitar and Marky's drums. It picked up a Golden Raspberry nomination for Worst Original Song, and it also became one of their biggest radio hits and a fixture of their shows through the 1990s.

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