1974-1979

The band held their rehearsals at a New York City studio managed by a friend of the band, Thomas Erdelyi (a.k.a. Tommy Ramone),^[13] who would become the band's manager, and Monte A. Melnick who would become the band's tour manager. Soon after the band was formed, Dee Dee realized that he could not sing and play bass at the same time,^[14] so Joey became the band's lead vocalist. (Dee Dee would continue, however, to count off each song's tempo with his signature rapid-fire shout of "1-2-3-4!".) Joey would also realize that he could not sing and play drums at the same time and left the position of drummer. While auditioning new drummers, manager Thomas Erdelyi would often take to the drums and demonstrate to auditioners how to play the songs. It became apparent that he was able to play the group's songs better than anyone else, and he joined the band as drummer Tommy Ramone.

The band played their first concert on March 30, 1974, at Performance Studios in New York.^[2] The songs they played were very fast and very short; most clocked in at under two minutes. In the early 1970s, a new music scene emerged in New York when many bands started to play in clubs on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, such as Max's Kansas City and most famously CBGB.

After garnering considerable attention for their performances at CBGB's, the group was signed to a recording contract in Autumn 1975 by Seymour Stein of Sire Records, whose wife Linda Stein had seen them play at CBGB's and would later co-manage the band with Danny Fields.^[15] They soon recorded their debut album, Ramones on an extremely low budget, about $6,400. The band was plagued by hostile audience reactions outside of New York City. It wasn’t until they made a small tour of England that they began to see the fruits of their labor: a performance at The Roundhouse in London on July 4, 1976 (second-billed to the Flamin' Groovies), which Linda Stein had organized,^[16] was a huge success. Their appearance galvanized the burgeoning UK punk rock scene, inspiring future punk stars, including members of The Clash, The Damned, and the Sex Pistols.^[17] The Flamin' Groovies/Ramones double-bill was successfully reprised at The Roxy in Los Angeles the following month, which also inspired local Los Angeles musicians.

On December 31, 1977, the Ramones recorded It's Alive, a live concert double album, at the Rainbow Theatre, London, which was released in April 1979. The title is a reference to the 1974 horror movie of the same name. Their next two albums, Leave Home and Rocket to Russia were released in 1977. Dave Marsh wrote in Rolling Stone that Rocket to Russia was "the best American rock & roll of the year".^[18] Both records were co-produced by Tony Bongiovi, the second cousin of Jon Bon Jovi.^[19] Tommy, tired of touring, left the band and was replaced by Mark Bell, who became Marky Ramone.

In 1978 the band released their fourth album, and first with Marky, Road to Ruin. The album included some new sounds like acoustic guitar, several ballads, and songs over three minutes, but still failed to chart highly.