Blitzkrieg Bop Lyrics

A simple cheer, the opening line of "Blitzkrieg Bop" is as memorable a song-starter as anything in rock n' roll.

The Ramones were inspired to create the chant by another band that might surprise you: the slightly goofy Scottish boy pop band the Bay City Rollers, whose hit song "Saturday Night" used an infectious spelling chant as its chorus. "Hey ho, let's go!" followed a similar musical recipe... but somehow the Ramones managed to hang onto quite a bit more street cred than did their Scottish counterparts.

Blitzkrieg - that's German for "lighting war" - was a type of warfare employed by Nazi Germany during World War II.

Blitzkrieg tactics, which deployed mechanized forces in rapid and overwhelming attacks against enemy positions, helped the Nazis win a series of devastating victories early in World War II, overwhelming Germany's foes in places like Poland, Belgium, and France. In English, the word "blitzkrieg" - and especially it's shortened variant, "blitz" - has since been used to describe any kind of overwhelming rapid attack. (Think football here.) And "overwhelming rapid attack" isn't a bad description of the Ramones' sound; their frantic playing is the blitzkrieg bop.